Genesis: Creation, Fall, and Dominion

A Biblical Ethic but a Vulgar Word

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Old Testament Studies

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2021-07-04

Synopsis: Pastor John Weaver argues that work is a biblical mandate established before the Fall, not a result of sin. Using Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 3:17-19, he shows that man was created for work, which became onerous only after the curse. He warns that rejecting a biblical work ethic leads to societal decay, as seen in Sodom's idleness and modern welfare dependency. The sermon calls believers to view all labor as ministry unto God, to avoid sluggardliness, and to embrace work as therapeutic and God-glorifying.

[John Weaver] We'll please to Genesis 1 and Genesis 3. We're going to look at Genesis 1, verse 28, and Genesis 3, verses 17 through 19. The title of the message is, A Biblical Ethic, but a Vulgar Word. you will understand momentarily. Look in Genesis 1, just verse 28. The Bible says, And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Now, if you look in Genesis 3, beginning there with verse 17, And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commended thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shalt it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.

[John Weaver] In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and her dust shalt thou return." There is a four-lettered word that most people absolutely detest and despise. They endeavor to avoid it. They refuse to speak of it, pronounce it, or even engage in its usage. It has become an extremely vulgar word among a lot of people, and seemingly only the lowest of men engage in it and enjoy it and find satisfaction in it. If you haven't guessed, the four-lettered word I'm talking about is work, W-O-R-K. Very few people really, truly love to work. But we have to understand that there is indeed a biblical work ethic. Work did not come into existence after the fall. Work existed before the fall of man. Certainly, it did not become onerous until after the fall, but it did exist before the fall. So I want you to look in verse 28, where God has created man.

[John Weaver] And look what he says in Genesis one, verse 28, and God bless them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the foul of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Let me just point out something before I really get into verse 28, and that is really the word replenish. First of all, the word replenish is the Hebrew word male.

[John Weaver] It does not imply that people existed before Adam, neither does it imply that there was a creation before Adam. Some people look at that and they say, well, there must have been a fuller earth at one time, and now God says to replenish it. But the Hebrew word male, Just simply, it's translated in our Bibles 250 times, then it's translated, fill 108 times, full 48 times, consecrate 15 times, accomplish 7 times, replenish 7 times, and then there are 8 other ways it is used as well. But it occurs 250 times. So basically, this word literally means to make full, to satisfy, to accomplish and complete. So literally, God said in verse 28, be fruitful and multiply and complete the earth or fill the earth is basically what he was saying. In other words, I created the earth to be full. Go ahead and fill it. There's another word that must be pointed out, and that is the word subdued. He says and subdued it. Now, the word subdued is the Hebrew word kabbash. And that word literally means to bring into subjection, to bring into bondage, to bring under, or to dominate, and to tread down.

[John Weaver] And then, of course, in verse 28, we also have the word dominion. And the Hebrew word there is rada, which means to rule, to prevail, to reign, to have dominion, to dominate, to subjugate, and to tread down.

[John Weaver] Now, when you take these three words, replenish, subdue, and dominate, obviously there is work involved in all of these items. There is indeed a biblical work ethic. Work is an aspect of dominion, and dominion cannot be accomplished without work. So let me spell this out for you. Most people may not want to hear this, but here it is. Man was created for work. He was created to work. He was made basically for work.

[John Weaver] It is just that simple. Now, the interesting thing is this. When God created Adam, He created him mature. That is, He created him full grown. So when God created this mature individual, He put him in the garden and He assigned him responsibility, accountability, And that responsibility included work and knowledge. So man then was supposed to bring everything into captivity unto God for God's honor and God's glory.

[John Weaver] So I want you to watch this. Look in Genesis 2 and verse 15. Here it is spelled out. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Now in verse 15, there is a twofold responsibility that is given to us. First of all, God told Adam to dress the garden. The Hebrew word dress is abod, which means to labor, to work, to service, and to till. And then if you look back at verse 15, he says to dress it and to keep it. The Hebrew word is the word shamar. And the word shamar basically means to watch, to observe, to guard, to protect, and to act as a watchman. So then God placed Adam in the garden and gave him a dual responsibility. He not only had to till and to work the garden, to dress it, keep it dressed, but he also had to guard the garden and protect the garden as well, which of course was work. When you place these thoughts together, it should be easily understood that man then was created for work.

[John Weaver] You cannot work without knowledge. So Adam was created not only with original righteousness and holiness, but he was also created with knowledge as well. He had to know in order to perform the work. And here's the interesting thing. The more he worked and the more he performed his work, then the more knowledge he would attain as well. So inherent in his work, inherent in his dressing the garden and keeping the garden, was responsibility, accountability, and what you and I would say is knowledge and understanding. It is impossible to produce the way we should without knowledge. So we greatly err and we greatly sin, I believe, when we think that our need to know and our need to increase in knowledge and understanding somehow ceases when we graduate from high school or graduate from college.

[John Weaver] And the truth of the matter is this, once you finish those courses, your learning basically has only just begun. And the truth of the matter is this, the school of hard knocks usually teaches you a whole lot more than four years in college. Then I usually tell people, I learned a whole lot more since I have gotten out of college than I ever did in college. And you have to also understand this, Obviously in today's leftist, liberals, and Marxist schools, clearly the School of Hard Knock is going to teach you a whole lot more as well. Now, most people think that somehow if they go through high school or if they go through college and they get that little piece of paper that says diploma written on it, then all is well.

[John Weaver] But let me point out something. A piece of paper is absolutely worthless if you do not have knowledge and understanding. And a piece of paper is absolutely worthless unless you can actually function and do that which really and truly needs to be done. So the point I'm trying to make is it's impossible to really work and or guard or do whatever we're supposed to do without knowledge.

[John Weaver] So here's a couple of questions. When is the last time that you read all the way through the Bible? When is the last time you just simply read a book? When is the last time you listened to a lecture just simply to learn and to increase your knowledge. You remember that passage in Hosea 4 and verse 6, I think is very applicable in our day and time, when God said, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And because you have rejected knowledge, God said, therefore, I'm going to reject you.

[John Weaver] You will not be a priest unto me. And because you have forsaken my law, God said, also, I will forsake your children as well. So Adam then was placed in that garden to work. He was created for work. But you and I both know that according to the Bible, Adam fell, he sinned. And when you get to Romans 5 and verse 12, the Bible says, wherefore as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. Why? For that all have sinned. And then in Romans 5 and verse 19, Again, the Bible talks about the offense came by one man. And then when you get to 1 Corinthians 15, especially there, verses 45 through 50, again, we're told that we fell in Adam. So after the fall, the work now has become onerous according to the Bible.

[John Weaver] Now it comes only through the sweat of our brow. So if you look in Genesis chapter 3, and verse 17 again, look what the Bible says. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commended thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Now look at this. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field." Have you ever noticed how easily weeds, stickers, thorns, worthless plants grow?

[John Weaver] You never have to plant them. You never have to water them. You never have to fertilize them. They're just there. And if you ever want a garden that's going to produce or a field that's going to produce, you have to eradicate those weeds. It's just that simple.

[John Weaver] Now, notice if you would, that God said thorns and thistles also shall it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field." So everything has to be cleared out in order to have a profitable crop.

[John Weaver] Now look in verse 19. He says,"...in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art, and in dust shalt thou return." I want you to tie these things together. I want you to look at the fact that God has cursed the ground in verse 17.

[John Weaver] Now he said in verse 18, thorns and thistles is going to bring forth to you. And then in verse 19, he talks about the sweat of thy face. Thou shalt eat bread. Note, if you would, if when you tie these thoughts together, you're going to see that it is hard, backbreaking, sweat producing work. Along with some smart thinking at times as well as determination grit that are now necessary in order to produce a livelihood Now before I come back to one of these verses, I want to give you a quote. I want you to listen John Gill Said this concerning cursed be the ground for thy sake. I'm going to come back to that. But here's the paragraph Cursed is the ground for thy sake the whole earth Which was made for man and all things in it which he had the possession and dominion, and might have enjoyed the use of everything in it with comfort and pleasure.

[John Weaver] That which was man's greatest earthly blessing is now turning to a curse by sin, which is a proof of the exceeding sinfulness of it, and it's just a merit. So in later instances, a fruitful land is turned into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Hence, Whenever there is sterility in a country or one of provisions, a famine, it should always be imputed to sin. And this should put us in mind of the sin of the first man and the consequences of that sin.

[John Weaver] And sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life, meaning that with much toil and trouble in manuring and cultivating the earth, he should get his living out of the produce of it, though with great difficulty And this would be his case as long as he was on the earth. Now, I want you to think about something for me just a moment. We know from the Bible that the earth is cursed. We know from the Bible that we have plenty of thorns and thistles and all kind of noxious plants as well. But have you ever stopped to think, even with the curse that is on the earth, how much food this earth produces. And when you stop and think of the food that we throw away and the food that is allowed to ruin, can you ever imagine what it might've been like without sin and what the produce of this earth would have been without the curse of the earth being upon it? Now, I want you to look back to verse 17.

[John Weaver] Genesis 3 and verse 17. I want you to think about this truth. Look at this. And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commended thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

[John Weaver] Now notice what he said. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. So here's an excellent question. How is it for our sake that the ground is cursed? How is it for our benefit that we now have to earn our living, according to the Bible, by the sweat of our brows? How could this be for our benefit? Undoubtedly, there are a number of answers that could be given, but I want to give you one that you probably have never thought about. I want you to hold Genesis chapter 3, but turn in your Bibles to the book of Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16. And as you turn to the book of Ezekiel, let me ask you this question. Think as you turn there, what was the sin of Sodom? And I know what you're going to think. You're going to say, well, that's obvious. The sin of Sodom was sodomy. That is true, that was a sin of Sodom, but it was not necessarily the sin. There were numerous other sins that led up to that particular sin.

[John Weaver] And if you look in Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse 49, you will see it spelled out. Ezekiel 16 verse 49, God says, behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Here it is. Pride, fullness of bread, an abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me.

[John Weaver] Therefore I took them away as I saw good." Note, if you would, God said this was the iniquity of Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, plenty to eat, and an abundance of idleness. Wow. Wow. So it was the pride, the abundance of food and the abundance of idleness that led to their perversion and their sins. Have you ever stopped to think about this? If you really have to work, I mean, if work is an absolute must and you really have to work and you have to really strive to earn your living, you're not going to have time to think of a lot of wickedness. You would certainly not have the time to engage in it, and if you worked hard enough, you would not have the strength to engage in it. So, I'm pointing out the fact, here we are in our culture, here we are in our society, in our day and time, where our government pays people not to work.

[John Weaver] Alice and I were listening to the news coming on this morning, and several chambers of commerce are petitioning the government to stop all of the supplemental giving to people who are not working, because companies can no longer find help. I have had two different men ask me in this past week, Could I recommend someone to help them in their work? I mean, they pay well, they work hard, but they can't find any helpers. In fact, there is a sign on our local hardware store that please help yourself. We cannot find enough labor, and if we can give you direction, we'll give you direction, but you must wait on yourself. Isn't that amazing? Anyhow, they were saying that the supplemental Income that's being given to these people were 300 was 300 bucks a week not counting what they were already getting therefore The people were making more by staying home and not working than the word their jobs.

[John Weaver] Why would they go back to their job? Also this past week I read were 34% Now think about this 34% of all household income in America is from the government That's a third of the population, 34 percent. So that means 34 percent of 330 million people get all of their money from the federal government. Moreover, when you think about this and the federal government not only pays people not to work, they pay people to be immoral because the more children some of these women have out of marriage, the more money they make. And so obviously, We have, in this day and time, a complete and total denial of what we know as the biblical work ethic. And certainly, we have now a government that's paying people that's not to work, to not work, not to have a biblical work ethic. If I spelled it out, I could say this, they're paying people to violate the Word of God. That's exactly what they're doing.

[John Weaver] Now, we are now reaping some of the same destruction in our land as did Sodom and Gomorrah. because we're now denying a biblical work ethic. Now, work is not simply for our benefit. It is to be done for God's honor and God's glory. You remember that passage in Colossians 1, not Colossians 1, but it's Colossians 3 and verse 17, where God said, And whatsoever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks unto God the Father by him. So in all that you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. The Bible also in Proverbs 21 and verse 4 says this, a high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is sin.

[John Weaver] So let me ask you a question. Since God has commanded work. How is it now that the plowing of the wicked is sin? And the answer is, because the wicked do not plow in faith. They do not plow in reference to God's honor and glory. They plow selfishly. They plow without any thought of God whatsoever. And so God says the plowing of the wicked is sin. Now, we must ask these questions. When is the last time that you looked upon your work as a ministry? When is the last time that you looked upon your work, whatever it is, as a means to honor and glorify God? When is the last time you looked upon your work as obedience to the Bible? When is the last time that you looked upon your work as the means that God has given you to support yourself, your family, and His ministry, as well as people who you want to give unto? When is the last time that you thank God for your work? And when is the last time that you thank God that you were able to work?

[John Weaver] I hope you're beginning to see that one of our biggest problems in this day and time is we have lost a biblical work ethic. We have been taught to play and not to work. Here's an interesting thing. This society today, this generation today would have never made it on the frontier. Never. Moreover, this generation today will not make it in a grid-down societal collapse situation. When you stop and think about this, most people can't work. They won't work. They won't study. They won't think. They won't sacrifice. They won't do without. They won't make do on very little.

[John Weaver] I like that cartoon, and it's just a picture of old Archie Bunker seated by George Jefferson. And Bunker's looking at Jefferson saying, the snowflakes of the day would never take in our TV program. And that's about the truth. Alice and I have a book, and it's a very wonderful book. The title is We Had Everything But Money. And it's the stories of the Great Depression on how people survived and what they did. And some of it was very, very brilliant. And yet they survived that Great Depression.

[John Weaver] Now, all I'm trying to say is most people today don't know how to plant a garden. They don't know how to harvest. They don't know how to can. They could not, if they killed an animal, they could not skin it, gut it, quarter it, cut it up, cook. They don't know. So all I'm saying is when push comes to shove, this generation, this society, it's basically gone far. Now, most of you know that I don't like sports. If there's a ball in it, I don't care one thing about it.

[John Weaver] Just recently, I had a friend who was coming down for a class and he asked me, he said, what are you going to do for the Super Bowl? I said, what do you mean what I'm going to do for the Super Bowl? I said, I want to keep doing what I always do. I said, I don't care one thing about the Super Bowl. I don't even know who's playing. I said, I could care less. And I said, moreover, we don't even have a TV. So if you want to see the Super Bowl when you're down here, you need to let me know so I can make arrangements with someone who does have a TV so you can watch it, because you won't watch it at my house because we don't have a TV. So I don't care anything about sports. I don't care anything about any game that has a ball in it.

[John Weaver] Now there's a reason for that. And here it is. When I was a boy, I had to work all the time. I wanted to play ball, but dad said, no, I need you here and you have to help me work.

[John Weaver] Now, the interesting thing is we had a neighbor who was a friend of my father. He had one son and he and I were exactly the same age. He was captain of the baseball team, captain of the football team, captain of the basketball game. He played every sport imaginable. And I mean, you know, that required you staying hours after school. And so one day I saw his father and I called his name and I said, may I ask you, how is it that your son gets to play ball? And I said, I know you're a farmer like my father and I have to come home and help my father. I can't play. I said, How does your son get to play all these games?

[John Weaver] And he said to me, he said, well, when I was a boy, I had to work all of the time, all the time. He said, I made up my mind if I ever had a son that he would not have to work, that he would be able to enjoy just being a boy and playing sports and doing whatever he wanted to do. Now, let me just say this.

[John Weaver] That man was indeed a very hard working man and respected by everyone in the community. Well, I really liked what he said. So I went home and I told my father what his friend and our neighbor said. And I never will forget what my dad told me. He looked at me and said, son, let me tell you, I need you to help me here on the farm.

[John Weaver] It's no concern of mine what other people do. I need you here. And then he added this. He said, moreover, you can live your entire life without playing, but you can't live your life without working and you need to learn to work more than you need to learn to play.

[John Weaver] Now, I didn't appreciate that at that time, I can assure you, because as a boy, I wanted to play. But let me finish the story. Because my friend who got to play all of the time, Went on and became recreational director. I mean, he knew sports. That's all he was in. But my friend. Was married and divorced three or four different times. And the last job that he had.

[John Weaver] He stole $10,000 from the city and ran off. Later on, he died of cancer. The point I'm trying to make is, I'm not making fun of him, but the point I'm trying to make is his life was a game. All he did was play. All he did was appease and satisfy himself. He never, ever learned to work. And here's where we are in our generation today. We have people who want to play and they do not want to work. there will be a price to pay if you do not learn to work. Moreover, let me point out the fact that work is therapeutic. When work is done in faith and done for God's honor and glory, work releases stress.

[John Weaver] It eliminates poisons from your body through sweat. It gives a satisfaction of a job well done. It enables you to sleep at night, I can assure you. If you do not believe that, you work all day hard You come home and take a bath and you're ready to go to bed and you will sleep very well. Work is good for us mentally, emotionally and physically. And when we accomplish a task and we accomplish it successfully, there's always a sense of satisfaction. Why? Because God created us for work. And when we do something and we do it right, we're always satisfied and we're fulfilled. And let me point something else out.

[John Weaver] I'm not speaking against this, but I am just pointing it out. You can check this out for yourself on the Internet, but do you realize that most men who retire from their work die within two to five years afterwards? That's a fact. Now, I know that there are exceptions because there are some men who retire from one job and simply just go to another job. I think Pat had about three, didn't he? So I'm just simply saying there are men who are exceptions. And there are men who do retire, and they still don't stop.

[John Weaver] They find something to do at home. They keep gardening. They keep working. They keep exercising. My father-in-law beat the system. He retired at 65 and didn't die until he was 89. But he was an artist. Uh, he played tennis and in his eighties he was beating 30 year old man. He played chess. He was the treasurer of the church. He took, uh, drove the bus on church trips.

[John Weaver] I mean, he just stayed busy. Although he, he was retired. He did not stop. The point I'm trying to make is this. The golden years are not so golden if you're dead and, and people Men especially who retire and become TV addicts and count potatoes and fill up on potato chips and doughnuts, they're not going to live very long. That's all there is to it. There's nothing for them to live for. You know, the interesting thing is, when I turned 65, a little while back, I had a friend who is now dead. He always teased me. He said, well, you're 65, you can retire now.

[John Weaver] And I thought to myself, I knew he was teasing. I thought, why would I retire? I mean, what would I do? I'm already doing what I want to do. I love what I do. I cannot even envision myself not preaching.

[John Weaver] Now, I know that God called me to preach, and I know that God can retire me. He can disable me. I can have a stroke like anyone else. I can have a heart attack like anyone else. I can die like anyone else. Until he retires me, I plan on preaching as long as I can preach, as long as he gives me breath, as long as he gives me able, ability. And if I can sit and preach, that's exactly what I'll do. If I can stand and preach, I'll stand and preach.

[John Weaver] Pastor McCurry preached, I think, for 70 years. When his wife died, they had been married 67 years. And when Pastor McCurry was dying, One of the therapists came in trying to encourage him and give him a little spunk and a little reason to live. She asked him, if there was one thing, just one thing that you could do before you go home to be with the Lord, what is it you would like to do? He said one word, preach. Well, yeah, that's true. And you know, I'm just simply saying, Obviously, retirement may be beneficial as long as you keep going and as long as you keep doing. But if you sit down and become a couch potato and never, ever do anything, your retirement is not going to last very long.

[John Weaver] Now, you have to remember this, that many of our modern day problems could be resolved with this biblical work ethic. What do I mean by that? Well, let's first of all consider the welfare issue. Here's a great question. Why must we support men, women, and families who refuse to work? It is theft. It is theft to take from someone who works and produces and gives it to someone who does not work and will not work and support them in their sin and their indifference. There is a huge difference between someone who cannot work and someone who will not work. Charity and welfare, according to the Bible, happens to be the responsibility of individuals, families, and churches. It is not the responsibility of government. God says those that will not work, neither should they eat.

[John Weaver] And a man that will starve instead of working should starve, and the quicker he starves, the better. And that's not being ugly. That's not being unkind. That's just being biblical. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians. Look in II Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 10. II Thessalonians chapter 3. Watch, if you would please, verse 10. Here it is. II Thessalonians 3 and verse 10.

[John Weaver] The apostle wrote, For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. That's very plain. If any will not work, neither should he eat. So then a man is too lazy to work. Let him starve. I got news for you. If a man really thought he was starving or about to starve, I believe he could find some cans by the road to pick up. I believe he could find some bottles to pick up. He could find a ditch to dig. He could find some grass to cut. He would do anything to keep from starving. The point is, God said, if any will not work, neither should eat.

[John Weaver] Now, since you're there, look at verses 11 and 12. Watch this. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. You remember that abundance of idleness? Here it is. Busybodies disorderly. He says, For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.

[John Weaver] Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread." So if you're a Christian, God requires you to work. He requires you to feed yourself and your family.

[John Weaver] Now, look back, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, at verses 11 and 12. I Thessalonians chapter 4, and note if you would please verse 11. Here it is again. He says, And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing." Isn't that interesting that he tells us that we're required to work with our own hands, to do our own business, that we may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that we may have lack of nothing. In other words, it's very interesting that the apostle said that we should walk honestly toward those that are without. What is he saying? He is saying that if one refuses to work and provide for himself and his family, he is dishonest. And everybody knows it. Even the ungodly, that is those who are without. Even the heathen, he says, understands that you should be working.

[John Weaver] So he says, if you refuse to work, you're just simply dishonest. Now, look, if you would, to 1 Timothy chapter 5, just to show you that the apostle Paul does not pull his punches. Look at it. First Timothy chapter 5 and verse 8. Look what he says. But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. Isn't that amazing? Now the apostle Paul is saying that a man who does not work will not work and provide for his own, is not only dishonest, he's worse than an infidel. He's a thief. So he says, if you are refusing to work, you're a thief, you're dishonest, you're not providing for your own, you're worse than an infidel.

[John Weaver] How can a professing Christian who is capable of working be content to live off the government dole? How can any Christian be content to live off the sweat and blood of others? How can any Christian be content to be characterized as worse than an infidel? I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, please, to the book of Proverbs, chapter 6. Proverbs, chapter 6. The interesting thing is, in this passage, when God is going to teach us about work, He teaches us to go to the ant, the lowliest insect. Look what he says. Proverbs 6, beginning there with verse 6. He says, Go to the ant, thou sluggard. Wow. Consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provided her meat in the summer and gather their food in the harvest now Look at it go to the ant thou sluggard and then he said to consider her ways and be wise No one has to tell her to work The ants work Having no guide Overseer a ruler moreover.

[John Weaver] What do the ants do they put up? They gather meat in the summer the egg gather food in the harvest they get it while they can get it and put it up to when it's not available. So God is telling us that we are to go to the ant, that we can learn to be hard workers, independent, and learn to prepare.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to note what else he said in verse six. He said, go to the ant, thou sluggard. God condemns sluggards. You know what a sluggard is? A sluggard is someone who is sluggish. I guess, I didn't check it out, but I guess the word comes from the slug. You know how slow that little slug is. I read the other day that a slug is a snail that has been divorced. He lost his house. Well, I don't know, but the slug is so lazy and so slow. That's what a sluggish individual is It's someone who is lazy and indolent and will not work and will not act and will not consider the future Let me show you since you're in Proverbs chapter 6. Let's begin reading there with verse 9 Proverbs 6 in verse 9 God asked how long without sleep Oh sluggard How long without rise out of I sleep or when will thou rise out of I sleep yet a little sleep? a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth, and thy one as an armed man."

[John Weaver] So God said, here's a sluggard who loves to sleep. He's indolent. He's inactive. He's unconcerned. Therefore, poverty is going to come upon him speedily, unavoidably, and irresistibly. It's going to come like an armed man. He doesn't expect it, but it's coming.

[John Weaver] Now, look in Proverbs 10. and verse 26, Proverbs 10 and verse 26. Again, he's talking about sluggards. As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so is the slugger to them that send him. Now vinegar irritates teeth, smoke irritates the eyes. In other words, God says anybody who sends a sluggard, a lazy, sorry, indolent, worthless man on a mission is going to hurt from it because he's going to fail. He's not going to accomplish anything because he is a sluggard and the sluggard is going to hurt you and not help you. Look in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 4. This is one of my favorite verses, Proverbs 13 and verse 4. The Bible says the soul of the slugger desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

[John Weaver] And just about every city you drive through, you'll find a lot of men sitting around a burn barrel, smoking, drinking, and they're there early morning, late at night, all during the day. They're not workers. They will not work. And the Bible said the soul of the slugger desireth and hath nothing. So here's a new car goes by and the slugger looks at it says, I sure would like to have one of those cars like that. But he'll never have it because he won't work. He won't save. He won't prepare. A slugger can say, man, I'd like to have a fine house like that, but he'll never have it.

[John Weaver] All sluggards can do is desire. They never possess. But the Bible said the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Look in Proverbs chapter 20, Proverbs 20 and verse 4. Here it is again. Proverbs 20 and verse 4. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold, and therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing. The sluggard shall not plow by reason of the cold. Hmm. The sluggard will always offer multitudinous excuses for not working. It's too cold. It's too hot. It's too early. It's too late. It's too dangerous. I'm afraid. You say dangerous, afraid.

[John Weaver] What's that got to do with work? Well, look in your Bibles to Proverbs 22 and verse 13. I told you there's plenty of excuses. Proverbs 22 and verse 13. The slothful man says, There's a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets. I can't go outside and work. There's a lion roving around somewhere in the state. You know, I can't go outside. Look at it again in Proverbs 26 and verse 13, Proverbs 26 and verse 13. The slothful man said, there's a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets.

[John Weaver] I better stay in, it's too dangerous to go out. And so consequently, he does nothing.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to watch something. There are multitudinous excuses, but here's another excuse. Look in Proverbs chapter 26 and verse 16. This second excuse deals with his own pride, arrogance, and conceit. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason." So the sluggard really has no rationality. And he's not willing to listen to reason, because in his pride, in his arrogance, he believes that he is correct. He believes that he's right. A sluggard is not only a sluggard, he's also a fool. Think about this. Look at this verse again. Look at it, if you would. Proverbs 26, verse 16, the sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. That is, a sluggard is not going to listen to instruction. And the Bible says in Proverbs 1 in verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. So a sluggard is not only a lazy, indolent individual, he's a fool because he will not listen.

[John Weaver] Now, our Lord taught us clearly that there is a time to work. And likewise, He also taught us that there is a time that we cannot work. In John 9 and verse 4, our Lord said this, I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work. So let me put it to you very plainly. If you're not willing to work when you're able to do so. Don't complain when you're unable to do so. If you're not willing to prepare for the future while you can, don't complain when you have nothing.

[John Weaver] You will suffer for being a sluggard. You will suffer for not having a biblical work ethic. Your family will suffer You will have acted the part of a sluggard and the part of a fool and worse than an infidel according to the bible So we must must learn to work learn to make use of our time and we have to remember that maturity includes work Responsibility and knowledge and

[John Weaver] you cannot be mature without those things It's impossible God created man to work Our work only became onerous after the fall. Had men not sinned, it would have been always a pleasure to work.

[John Weaver] Now, let me try to make some applications, and I want you to think about these. The first one is this. R.J. Rush Dooney wrote a book many years ago, the title of which is Revolt Against Maturity. I read the book many years back. And it basically is talking about how in this day and age we are revolting against maturity. Maturity being work, knowledge, and responsibility. And the truth of the matter is, this is exactly where we are in our society. Our country has basically been revolting against maturity for the last 50 to 100 years, because we have abandoned responsibility, accountability, and the work ethic, and we have become absolutely childish and we expect everyone to support us and sacrifice that we may engage in all of our desires and all of our whims and all of our pleasures.

[John Weaver] We have developed an attitude of, you owe me, or they owe me, and if you don't give me what you owe me, I will take it. If you don't believe that, just look at the riots. Look at the stores that are being robbed ransacked, pillaged, burned. You owe me. And I'll take it whether you give it or not. That is their mentality. And so when you deny a biblical work ethic, inevitably, you're going to produce a society that's going to take and coerce and steal and defraud to get exactly what they want. And that's where we are today.

[John Weaver] The second application is this. There's no such thing as a free lunch. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Government cannot give to Steve except what it first takes from Steve and four or five other people. Government has nothing. It is nothing but politicians and power. That's it. Someone is going to object, and they're going to say, well, government has the power to print money, and so all they've got to do is print the money and give it to us, and that's free. No, that's not free. Because the more money they print, the precious little that you already have is being devalued.

[John Weaver] Inflation is not higher prices. Inflation is the value of your money decreasing. I tell people, when Alice and I got married, I used to give her 10 bucks a week to buy groceries. And I'd kind of fuss at her a little bit if she didn't bring two or three of it back. That means, how long we've been married? 56, seven, I don't know, eight, 59, going on 59 years. That means 58 years ago, we, she could buy meat, bread, milk, everything we needed for a week for six or seven bucks. You can't even walk out of the grocery store with a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. for six or seven bucks today.

[John Weaver] I'm just simply pointing out the fact inflation is theft. It is a silent theft. Everybody says we're making more money today than we've ever made before. Yes, but it's far more worthless than it's ever been before as well. So we have to understand, there's no such thing as a free lunch. And when you think about the federal government trying to print and give away $1.3 trillion, you better do some preparation because everything is fixing to skyrocket because there's no such thing as a free lunch.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to turn to one last passage. I want you to turn to Romans chapter 12. I want you to see even in this passage, a biblical work ethic. We oftentimes do not consider this, but everything about the ministry involves work. I never will forget, and I probably told you this, but when I was a boy, I wanted to be a preacher, but only because they only had to work on Sunday and Wednesday night and they could play the rest of the week.

[John Weaver] I was really deceived, I can assure you. But look at Romans chapter 12, beginning there in verse 6. Look what the Bible says, having then gifts differing according to the grace of God that is given to us. So God has given each one of us different gifts.

[John Weaver] Now watch, where the prophecy Let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. In other words, you do your work according to that which God has given you. Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering. If God called us to minister, let's do it. That's what he's saying. Or he that teacheth on teaching, if you're going to teach, give yourself to teaching. Or he that exhorteth on exhortation.

[John Weaver] Or he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness, that love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good, be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another, are you looking? Here it is, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.

[John Weaver] You see, everything that God tells us upon our gifts and our ministries, it is to be done vigorously. It is to be done with energy. It is to be done for God's honor and God's glory. And it is work. Whatever it is, teaching, exhorting, ministering, it is work. What we need is a biblical work ethic. I know, and how well I know this, The older we get, the less we can do. Most of you know my dear friend Al Perry.

[John Weaver] And Al reminds me from time to time that I should not be doing certain things considering my age. And I always respond to Al, but I'm not as old as you are. Of course, see, he's two months older than I am. And then I also say this. Well, I've been doing it all my life, why should I stop now? So the point I'm trying to make is simple. I realize there's some things I cannot do. And you've probably gotten to the stage, there's some things you cannot do. But you cannot stop doing what you can do.

[John Weaver] And what you should do. And you should be thankful that you are still able to do those things. God has given us a biblical work ethic, and I don't care if it's washing dishes, sweeping the floor, digging a ditch, repairing glocks. I don't care what it is. If you can do it in faith and for God's honor and glory, you're fulfilling the biblical mandate and a biblical work ethic. We should be thankful, whatever age we are, of the abilities that God still gives us and enables us to function and carry on and live our lives for His honor and His glory.

[John Weaver] Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. And we pray, Lord, that you would indeed teach us, encourage us, help us to keep on keeping on and to never, ever give up, give in or give out. May we honor thee in all that we say and do. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

[John Weaver] the the the

A Biblical Ethic but a Vulgar Word

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	UpWsf0ZjluI
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Genesis: Creation, Fall, and Dominion
Genre	Sermon
Date	2021-07-04
Dictation Name
Book	Book 075: Genesis — Chapter 17
Source Timed Segments	80

Formatted Transcript

Opening

We'll please to Genesis 1 and Genesis 3. We're going to look at Genesis 1, verse 28, and Genesis 3, verses 17 through 19. The title of the message is, "A Biblical Ethic, but a Vulgar Word." You will understand momentarily. Look in Genesis 1, just verse 28. The Bible says,

Scripture Reading — Genesis 1:28

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

Now, if you look in Genesis 3, beginning there with verse 17, "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shalt it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field."

Introduction: Work as a Vulgar Word

Weaver introduces the four-letter word 'work' as something many despise, but asserts a biblical work ethic exists.

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." There is a four-lettered word that most people absolutely detest and despise. They endeavor to avoid it. They refuse to speak of it, pronounce it, or even engage in its usage. It has become an extremely vulgar word among a lot of people, and seemingly only the lowest of men engage in it and enjoy it and find satisfaction in it. If you haven't guessed, the four-lettered word I'm talking about is work, W-O-R-K. Very few people really, truly love to work. But we have to understand that there is indeed a biblical work ethic. Work did not come into existence after the fall. Work existed before the fall of man. Certainly, it did not become onerous until after the fall, but it did exist before the fall. So I want you to look in verse 28, where God has created man.

Work Before the Fall: Genesis 1:28

Examines the Hebrew words for 'replenish,' 'subdue,' and 'dominion' to show work was part of man's original purpose.

And look what he says in Genesis 1, verse 28, "And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Let me just point out something before I really get into verse 28, and that is really the word replenish. First of all, the word replenish is the Hebrew word male. It does not imply that people existed before Adam, neither does it imply that there was a creation before Adam. Some people look at that and they say, well, there must have been a fuller earth at one time, and now God says to replenish it. But the Hebrew word male, just simply, it's translated in our Bibles 250 times, then it's translated, fill 108 times, full 48 times, consecrate 15 times, accomplish 7 times, replenish 7 times, and then there are 8 other ways it is used as well. But it occurs 250 times. So basically, this word literally means to make full, to satisfy, to accomplish and complete. So literally, God said in verse 28, be fruitful and multiply and complete the earth or fill the earth is basically what he was saying. In other words, I created the earth to be full. Go ahead and fill it. There's another word that must be pointed out, and that is the word subdued. He says and subdued it. Now, the word subdued is the Hebrew word kabbash. And that word literally means to bring into subjection, to bring into bondage, to bring under, or to dominate, and to tread down.

And then, of course, in verse 28, we also have the word dominion. And the Hebrew word there is rada, which means to rule, to prevail, to reign, to have dominion, to dominate, to subjugate, and to tread down. Now, when you take these three words, replenish, subdue, and dominate, obviously there is work involved in all of these items. There is indeed a biblical work ethic. Work is an aspect of dominion, and dominion cannot be accomplished without work. So let me spell this out for you. Most people may not want to hear this, but here it is. Man was created for work. He was created to work. He was made basically for work.

Adam's Responsibility in the Garden: Genesis 2:15

Adam was commanded to dress and keep the garden, involving labor and guarding, requiring knowledge and accountability.

So I want you to watch this. Look in Genesis 2 and verse 15. Here it is spelled out.

Scripture Reading — Genesis 2:15

"And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."

Now in verse 15, there is a twofold responsibility that is given to us. First of all, God told Adam to dress the garden. The Hebrew word dress is abod, which means to labor, to work, to service, and to till. And then if you look back at verse 15, he says to dress it and to keep it. The Hebrew word is the word shamar. And the word shamar basically means to watch, to observe, to guard, to protect, and to act as a watchman. So then God placed Adam in the garden and gave him a dual responsibility. He not only had to till and to work the garden, to dress it, keep it dressed, but he also had to guard the garden and protect the garden as well, which of course was work. When you place these thoughts together, it should be easily understood that man then was created for work.

You cannot work without knowledge. So Adam was created not only with original righteousness and holiness, but he was also created with knowledge as well. He had to know in order to perform the work. And here's the interesting thing. The more he worked and the more he performed his work, then the more knowledge he would attain as well. So inherent in his work, inherent in his dressing the garden and keeping the garden, was responsibility, accountability, and what you and I would say is knowledge and understanding. It is impossible to produce the way we should without knowledge. So we greatly err and we greatly sin, I believe, when we think that our need to know and our need to increase in knowledge and understanding somehow ceases when we graduate from high school or graduate from college.

Work After the Fall: Genesis 3:17-19

The curse made work onerous, with thorns, thistles, and sweat, but even cursed ground produces abundantly.

Now it comes only through the sweat of our brow. So if you look in Genesis chapter 3, and verse 17 again, look what the Bible says. "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Now look at this. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field." Have you ever noticed how easily weeds, stickers, thorns, worthless plants grow?

You never have to plant them. You never have to water them. You never have to fertilize them. They're just there. And if you ever want a garden that's going to produce or a field that's going to produce, you have to eradicate those weeds. It's just that simple.

Now, notice if you would, that God said, "Thorns and thistles also shall it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field." So everything has to be cleared out in order to have a profitable crop. Now look in verse 19. He says, "...in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art, and in dust shalt thou return." I want you to tie these things together. I want you to look at the fact that God has cursed the ground in verse 17.

Now he said in verse 18, thorns and thistles is going to bring forth to you. And then in verse 19, he talks about the sweat of thy face. Thou shalt eat bread. Note, if you would, if when you tie these thoughts together, you're going to see that it is hard, backbreaking, sweat producing work. Along with some smart thinking at times as well as determination grit that are now necessary in order to produce a livelihood. Now before I come back to one of these verses, I want to give you a quote. I want you to listen. John Gill said this concerning "cursed be the ground for thy sake." I'm going to come back to that. But here's the paragraph: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake, the whole earth which was made for man and all things in it which he had the possession and dominion, and might have enjoyed the use of everything in it with comfort and pleasure."

"That which was man's greatest earthly blessing is now turning to a curse by sin, which is a proof of the exceeding sinfulness of it, and it's just a merit. So in later instances, a fruitful land is turned into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Hence, whenever there is sterility in a country or one of provisions, a famine, it should always be imputed to sin. And this should put us in mind of the sin of the first man and the consequences of that sin." "And sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life, meaning that with much toil and trouble in manuring and cultivating the earth, he should get his living out of the produce of it, though with great difficulty. And this would be his case as long as he was on the earth." Now, I want you to think about something for me just a moment. We know from the Bible that the earth is cursed. We know from the Bible that we have plenty of thorns and thistles and all kind of noxious plants as well. But have you ever stopped to think, even with the curse that is on the earth, how much food this earth produces. And when you stop and think of the food that we throw away and the food that is allowed to ruin, can you ever imagine what it might've been like without sin and what the produce of this earth would have been without the curse of the earth being upon it? Now, I want you to look back to verse 17.

The Curse for Our Sake: Idleness and Sodom

The curse of hard work is for our benefit, preventing idleness which led to Sodom's sins (Ezekiel 16:49).

Now notice what he said. "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." So here's an excellent question. How is it for our sake that the ground is cursed? How is it for our benefit that we now have to earn our living, according to the Bible, by the sweat of our brows? How could this be for our benefit? Undoubtedly, there are a number of answers that could be given, but I want to give you one that you probably have never thought about. I want you to hold Genesis chapter 3, but turn in your Bibles to the book of Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16. And as you turn to the book of Ezekiel, let me ask you this question. Think as you turn there, what was the sin of Sodom? And I know what you're going to think. You're going to say, well, that's obvious. The sin of Sodom was sodomy. That is true, that was a sin of Sodom, but it was not necessarily the sin. There were numerous other sins that led up to that particular sin.

And if you look in Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse 49, you will see it spelled out. Ezekiel 16 verse 49, God says,

Scripture Reading — Ezekiel 16:49

"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Here it is. Pride, fullness of bread, an abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me."

"Therefore I took them away as I saw good." Note, if you would, God said this was the iniquity of Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, plenty to eat, and an abundance of idleness. Wow. Wow. So it was the pride, the abundance of food and the abundance of idleness that led to their perversion and their sins. Have you ever stopped to think about this? If you really have to work, I mean, if work is an absolute must and you really have to work and you have to really strive to earn your living, you're not going to have time to think of a lot of wickedness. You would certainly not have the time to engage in it, and if you worked hard enough, you would not have the strength to engage in it. So, I'm pointing out the fact, here we are in our culture, here we are in our society, in our day and time, where our government pays people not to work.

Modern Denial of the Work Ethic

Government payments discourage work, leading to societal decay similar to Sodom; 34% of household income from government.

Alice and I were listening to the news coming on this morning, and several chambers of commerce are petitioning the government to stop all of the supplemental giving to people who are not working, because companies can no longer find help. I have had two different men ask me in this past week, could I recommend someone to help them in their work? I mean, they pay well, they work hard, but they can't find any helpers. In fact, there is a sign on our local hardware store that please help yourself. We cannot find enough labor, and if we can give you direction, we'll give you direction, but you must wait on yourself. Isn't that amazing? Anyhow, they were saying that the supplemental income that's being given to these people were $300 was $300 bucks a week not counting what they were already getting. Therefore, the people were making more by staying home and not working than they were at their jobs.

Why would they go back to their job? Also this past week I read where 34%, now think about this, 34% of all household income in America is from the government. That's a third of the population, 34 percent. So that means 34 percent of 330 million people get all of their money from the federal government. Moreover, when you think about this and the federal government not only pays people not to work, they pay people to be immoral because the more children some of these women have out of marriage, the more money they make. And so obviously, we have, in this day and time, a complete and total denial of what we know as the biblical work ethic. And certainly, we have now a government that's paying people that's not to work, to not work, not to have a biblical work ethic. If I spelled it out, I could say this, they're paying people to violate the Word of God. That's exactly what they're doing.

Now, we are now reaping some of the same destruction in our land as did Sodom and Gomorrah. because we're now denying a biblical work ethic. Now, work is not simply for our benefit. It is to be done for God's honor and God's glory. You remember that passage in Colossians 1, not Colossians 1, but it's Colossians 3 and verse 17, where God said, "And whatsoever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks unto God the Father by him." So in all that you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. The Bible also in Proverbs 21 and verse 4 says this, "A high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is sin."

Work as Ministry and Therapy

Work done in faith honors God, releases stress, and provides satisfaction; retirement often leads to early death.

So let me ask you a question. Since God has commanded work, how is it now that the plowing of the wicked is sin? And the answer is, because the wicked do not plow in faith. They do not plow in reference to God's honor and glory. They plow selfishly. They plow without any thought of God whatsoever. And so God says the plowing of the wicked is sin. Now, we must ask these questions. When is the last time that you looked upon your work as a ministry? When is the last time that you looked upon your work, whatever it is, as a means to honor and glorify God? When is the last time you looked upon your work as obedience to the Bible? When is the last time that you looked upon your work as the means that God has given you to support yourself, your family, and His ministry, as well as people who you want to give unto? When is the last time that you thank God for your work? And when is the last time that you thank God that you were able to work?

I hope you're beginning to see that one of our biggest problems in this day and time is we have lost a biblical work ethic. We have been taught to play and not to work. Here's an interesting thing. This society today, this generation today would have never made it on the frontier. Never. Moreover, this generation today will not make it in a grid-down societal collapse situation. When you stop and think about this, most people can't work. They won't work. They won't study. They won't think. They won't sacrifice. They won't do without. They won't make do on very little.

I like that cartoon, and it's just a picture of old Archie Bunker seated by George Jefferson. And Bunker's looking at Jefferson saying, the snowflakes of the day would never take in our TV program. And that's about the truth. Alice and I have a book, and it's a very wonderful book. The title is "We Had Everything But Money." And it's the stories of the Great Depression on how people survived and what they did. And some of it was very, very brilliant. And yet they survived that Great Depression.

Now, all I'm trying to say is most people today don't know how to plant a garden. They don't know how to harvest. They don't know how to can. They could not, if they killed an animal, they could not skin it, gut it, quarter it, cut it up, cook. They don't know. So all I'm saying is when push comes to shove, this generation, this society, it's basically gone far. Now, most of you know that I don't like sports. If there's a ball in it, I don't care one thing about it.

Just recently, I had a friend who was coming down for a class and he asked me, he said, what are you going to do for the Super Bowl? I said, what do you mean what I'm going to do for the Super Bowl? I said, I want to keep doing what I always do. I said, I don't care one thing about the Super Bowl. I don't even know who's playing. I said, I could care less. And I said, moreover, we don't even have a TV. So if you want to see the Super Bowl when you're down here, you need to let me know so I can make arrangements with someone who does have a TV so you can watch it, because you won't watch it at my house because we don't have a TV. So I don't care anything about sports. I don't care anything about any game that has a ball in it.

Now there's a reason for that. And here it is. When I was a boy, I had to work all the time. I wanted to play ball, but dad said, no, I need you here and you have to help me work.

Now, the interesting thing is we had a neighbor who was a friend of my father. He had one son and he and I were exactly the same age. He was captain of the baseball team, captain of the football team, captain of the basketball game. He played every sport imaginable. And I mean, you know, that required you staying hours after school. And so one day I saw his father and I called his name and I said, may I ask you, how is it that your son gets to play ball? And I said, I know you're a farmer like my father and I have to come home and help my father. I can't play. I said, how does your son get to play all these games?

And he said to me, he said, well, when I was a boy, I had to work all of the time, all the time. He said, I made up my mind if I ever had a son that he would not have to work, that he would be able to enjoy just being a boy and playing sports and doing whatever he wanted to do. Now, let me just say this. That man was indeed a very hard working man and respected by everyone in the community. Well, I really liked what he said. So I went home and I told my father what his friend and our neighbor said. And I never will forget what my dad told me. He looked at me and said, son, let me tell you, I need you to help me here on the farm.

It's no concern of mine what other people do. I need you here. And then he added this. He said, moreover, you can live your entire life without playing, but you can't live your life without working and you need to learn to work more than you need to learn to play.

Now, I didn't appreciate that at that time, I can assure you, because as a boy, I wanted to play. But let me finish the story. Because my friend who got to play all of the time, went on and became recreational director. I mean, he knew sports. That's all he was in. But my friend was married and divorced three or four different times. And the last job that he had.

He stole $10,000 from the city and ran off. Later on, he died of cancer. The point I'm trying to make is, I'm not making fun of him, but the point I'm trying to make is his life was a game. All he did was play. All he did was appease and satisfy himself. He never, ever learned to work. And here's where we are in our generation today. We have people who want to play and they do not want to work. There will be a price to pay if you do not learn to work. Moreover, let me point out the fact that work is therapeutic. When work is done in faith and done for God's honor and glory, work releases stress.

It eliminates poisons from your body through sweat. It gives a satisfaction of a job well done. It enables you to sleep at night, I can assure you. If you do not believe that, you work all day hard. You come home and take a bath and you're ready to go to bed and you will sleep very well. Work is good for us mentally, emotionally and physically. And when we accomplish a task and we accomplish it successfully, there's always a sense of satisfaction. Why? Because God created us for work. And when we do something and we do it right, we're always satisfied and we're fulfilled. And let me point something else out.

I'm not speaking against this, but I am just pointing it out. You can check this out for yourself on the Internet, but do you realize that most men who retire from their work die within two to five years afterwards? That's a fact. Now, I know that there are exceptions because there are some men who retire from one job and simply just go to another job. I think Pat had about three, didn't he? So I'm just simply saying there are men who are exceptions. And there are men who do retire, and they still don't stop.

They find something to do at home. They keep gardening. They keep working. They keep exercising. My father-in-law beat the system. He retired at 65 and didn't die until he was 89. But he was an artist. He played tennis and in his eighties he was beating 30 year old men. He played chess. He was the treasurer of the church. He drove the bus on church trips.

I mean, he just stayed busy. Although he was retired, he did not stop. The point I'm trying to make is this. The golden years are not so golden if you're dead and, people, men especially who retire and become TV addicts and couch potatoes and fill up on potato chips and doughnuts, they're not going to live very long. That's all there is to it. There's nothing for them to live for. You know, the interesting thing is, when I turned 65, a little while back, I had a friend who is now dead. He always teased me. He said, well, you're 65, you can retire now.

And I thought to myself, I knew he was teasing. I thought, why would I retire? I mean, what would I do? I'm already doing what I want to do. I love what I do. I cannot even envision myself not preaching.

Now, I know that God called me to preach, and I know that God can retire me. He can disable me. I can have a stroke like anyone else. I can have a heart attack like anyone else. I can die like anyone else. Until he retires me, I plan on preaching as long as I can preach, as long as he gives me breath, as long as he gives me ability. And if I can sit and preach, that's exactly what I'll do. If I can stand and preach, I'll stand and preach.

Pastor McCurry preached, I think, for 70 years. When his wife died, they had been married 67 years. And when Pastor McCurry was dying, one of the therapists came in trying to encourage him and give him a little spunk and a little reason to live. She asked him, if there was one thing, just one thing that you could do before you go home to be with the Lord, what is it you would like to do? He said one word, preach. Well, yeah, that's true. And you know, I'm just simply saying, obviously, retirement may be beneficial as long as you keep going and as long as you keep doing. But if you sit down and become a couch potato and never, ever do anything, your retirement is not going to last very long.

Now, you have to remember this, that many of our modern day problems could be resolved with this biblical work ethic. What do I mean by that? Well, let's first of all consider the welfare issue. Here's a great question. Why must we support men, women, and families who refuse to work? It is theft. It is theft to take from someone who works and produces and gives it to someone who does not work and will not work and support them in their sin and their indifference. There is a huge difference between someone who cannot work and someone who will not work. Charity and welfare, according to the Bible, happens to be the responsibility of individuals, families, and churches. It is not the responsibility of government. God says those that will not work, neither should they eat.

Biblical Condemnation of Sluggards

Scripture commands work; those who refuse are thieves, worse than infidels; Proverbs warns sluggards of poverty.

And a man that will starve instead of working should starve, and the quicker he starves, the better. And that's not being ugly. That's not being unkind. That's just being biblical. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians. Look in II Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 10. II Thessalonians chapter 3. Watch, if you would please, verse 10. Here it is. II Thessalonians 3 and verse 10.

The apostle wrote, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat." That's very plain. If any will not work, neither should he eat. So then a man is too lazy to work. Let him starve. I got news for you. If a man really thought he was starving or about to starve, I believe he could find some cans by the road to pick up. I believe he could find some bottles to pick up. He could find a ditch to dig. He could find some grass to cut. He would do anything to keep from starving. The point is, God said, if any will not work, neither should eat.

Now, since you're there, look at verses 11 and 12. Watch this. "For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies." You remember that abundance of idleness? Here it is. Busybodies disorderly. He says, "For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies." "Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread." So if you're a Christian, God requires you to work. He requires you to feed yourself and your family.

Now, look back, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, at verses 11 and 12. I Thessalonians chapter 4, and note if you would please verse 11. Here it is again. He says,

Scripture Reading — 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

"And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing."

Isn't that interesting that he tells us that we're required to work with our own hands, to do our own business, that we may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that we may have lack of nothing. In other words, it's very interesting that the apostle said that we should walk honestly toward those that are without. What is he saying? He is saying that if one refuses to work and provide for himself and his family, he is dishonest. And everybody knows it. Even the ungodly, that is those who are without. Even the heathen, he says, understands that you should be working.

So he says, if you refuse to work, you're just simply dishonest. Now, look, if you would, to 1 Timothy chapter 5, just to show you that the apostle Paul does not pull his punches. Look at it. First Timothy chapter 5 and verse 8. Look what he says.

Scripture Reading — 1 Timothy 5:8

"But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he denied the faith and is worse than an infidel."

Isn't that amazing? Now the apostle Paul is saying that a man who does not work, will not work and provide for his own, is not only dishonest, he's worse than an infidel. He's a thief. So he says, if you are refusing to work, you're a thief, you're dishonest, you're not providing for your own, you're worse than an infidel.

How can a professing Christian who is capable of working be content to live off the government dole? How can any Christian be content to live off the sweat and blood of others? How can any Christian be content to be characterized as worse than an infidel? I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, please, to the book of Proverbs, chapter 6. Proverbs, chapter 6. The interesting thing is, in this passage, when God is going to teach us about work, He teaches us to go to the ant, the lowliest insect. Look what he says. Proverbs 6, beginning there with verse 6. He says, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard. Wow. Consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provided her meat in the summer and gathered their food in the harvest." Now look at it. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard," and then he said to consider her ways and be wise. No one has to tell her to work. The ants work, having no guide, overseer, or ruler. Moreover.

What do the ants do? They put up. They gather meat in the summer, they gather food in the harvest. They get it while they can get it and put it up for when it's not available. So God is telling us that we are to go to the ant, that we can learn to be hard workers, independent, and learn to prepare.

Now, I want you to note what else he said in verse six. He said, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard." God condemns sluggards. You know what a sluggard is? A sluggard is someone who is sluggish. I guess, I didn't check it out, but I guess the word comes from the slug. You know how slow that little slug is. I read the other day that a slug is a snail that has been divorced. He lost his house. Well, I don't know, but the slug is so lazy and so slow. That's what a sluggish individual is. It's someone who is lazy and indolent and will not work and will not act and will not consider the future. Let me show you since you're in Proverbs chapter 6. Let's begin reading there with verse 9. Proverbs 6 in verse 9. God asked, "How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise 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 traveleth, and thy want as an armed man."

So God said, here's a sluggard who loves to sleep. He's indolent. He's inactive. He's unconcerned. Therefore, poverty is going to come upon him speedily, unavoidably, and irresistibly. It's going to come like an armed man. He doesn't expect it, but it's coming.

Now, look in Proverbs 10 and verse 26, Proverbs 10 and verse 26. Again, he's talking about sluggards.

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 10:26

"As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him."

Now vinegar irritates teeth, smoke irritates the eyes. In other words, God says anybody who sends a sluggard, a lazy, sorry, indolent, worthless man on a mission is going to hurt from it because he's going to fail. He's not going to accomplish anything because he is a sluggard and the sluggard is going to hurt you and not help you. Look in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 4. This is one of my favorite verses, Proverbs 13 and verse 4. The Bible says "The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat."

And just about every city you drive through, you'll find a lot of men sitting around a burn barrel, smoking, drinking, and they're there early morning, late at night, all during the day. They're not workers. They will not work. And the Bible said the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing. So here's a new car goes by and the sluggard looks at it says, I sure would like to have one of those cars like that. But he'll never have it because he won't work. He won't save. He won't prepare. A sluggard can say, man, I'd like to have a fine house like that, but he'll never have it.

All sluggards can do is desire. They never possess. But the Bible said the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Look in Proverbs chapter 20, Proverbs 20 and verse 4. Here it is again. Proverbs 20 and verse 4. "The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold, and therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing." The sluggard shall not plow by reason of the cold. Hmm. The sluggard will always offer multitudinous excuses for not working. It's too cold. It's too hot. It's too early. It's too late. It's too dangerous. I'm afraid. You say dangerous, afraid.

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 20:4

What's that got to do with work? Well, look in your Bibles to Proverbs 22 and verse 13. I told you there's plenty of excuses. Proverbs 22 and verse 13. "The slothful man says, There's a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets." I can't go outside and work. There's a lion roving around somewhere in the state. You know, I can't go outside. Look at it again in Proverbs 26 and verse 13, Proverbs 26 and verse 13. "The slothful man said, There's a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets."

I better stay in, it's too dangerous to go out. And so consequently, he does nothing. Now, I want you to watch something. There are multitudinous excuses, but here's another excuse. Look in Proverbs chapter 26 and verse 16. This second excuse deals with his own pride, arrogance, and conceit.

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 26:16

"The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason."

So the sluggard really has no rationality. And he's not willing to listen to reason, because in his pride, in his arrogance, he believes that he is correct. He believes that he's right. A sluggard is not only a sluggard, he's also a fool. Think about this. Look at this verse again. Look at it, if you would. Proverbs 26, verse 16,

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 26:16

"The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason."

That is, a sluggard is not going to listen to instruction. And the Bible says in Proverbs 1 in verse 7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." So a sluggard is not only a lazy, indolent individual, he's a fool because he will not listen.

Now, our Lord taught us clearly that there is a time to work. And likewise, He also taught us that there is a time that we cannot work. In John 9 and verse 4, our Lord said this,

Scripture Reading — John 9:4

"I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work."

So let me put it to you very plainly. If you're not willing to work when you're able to do so, don't complain when you're unable to do so. If you're not willing to prepare for the future while you can, don't complain when you have nothing.

Applications and Conclusion

Society revolts against maturity; no free lunch; all gifts are to be used vigorously; be thankful for ability to work.

Now, let me try to make some applications, and I want you to think about these. The first one is this. R.J. Rushdoony wrote a book many years ago, the title of which is "Revolt Against Maturity." I read the book many years back. And it basically is talking about how in this day and age we are revolting against maturity. Maturity being work, knowledge, and responsibility. And the truth of the matter is, this is exactly where we are in our society. Our country has basically been revolting against maturity for the last 50 to 100 years, because we have abandoned responsibility, accountability, and the work ethic, and we have become absolutely childish and we expect everyone to support us and sacrifice that we may engage in all of our desires and all of our whims and all of our pleasures.

We have developed an attitude of, you owe me, or they owe me, and if you don't give me what you owe me, I will take it. If you don't believe that, just look at the riots. Look at the stores that are being robbed, ransacked, pillaged, burned. You owe me. And I'll take it whether you give it or not. That is their mentality. And so when you deny a biblical work ethic, inevitably, you're going to produce a society that's going to take and coerce and steal and defraud to get exactly what they want. And that's where we are today.

The second application is this. There's no such thing as a free lunch. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Government cannot give to Steve except what it first takes from Steve and four or five other people. Government has nothing. It is nothing but politicians and power. That's it. Someone is going to object, and they're going to say, well, government has the power to print money, and so all they've got to do is print the money and give it to us, and that's free. No, that's not free. Because the more money they print, the precious little that you already have is being devalued.

Inflation is not higher prices. Inflation is the value of your money decreasing. I tell people, when Alice and I got married, I used to give her 10 bucks a week to buy groceries. And I'd kind of fuss at her a little bit if she didn't bring two or three of it back. That means, how long we've been married? 56, seven, I don't know, eight, 59, going on 59 years. That means 58 years ago, she could buy meat, bread, milk, everything we needed for a week for six or seven bucks. You can't even walk out of the grocery store with a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk for six or seven bucks today.

I'm just simply pointing out the fact inflation is theft. It is a silent theft. Everybody says we're making more money today than we've ever made before. Yes, but it's far more worthless than it's ever been before as well. So we have to understand, there's no such thing as a free lunch. And when you think about the federal government trying to print and give away $1.3 trillion, you better do some preparation because everything is fixing to skyrocket because there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Now, I want you to turn to one last passage. I want you to turn to Romans chapter 12. I want you to see even in this passage, a biblical work ethic. We oftentimes do not consider this, but everything about the ministry involves work. I never will forget, and I probably told you this, but when I was a boy, I wanted to be a preacher, but only because they only had to work on Sunday and Wednesday night and they could play the rest of the week. I was really deceived, I can assure you. But look at Romans chapter 12, beginning there in verse 6. Look what the Bible says, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace of God that is given to us." So God has given each one of us different gifts.

Now watch, "Whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith." In other words, you do your work according to that which God has given you. "Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering." If God called us to minister, let's do it. That's what he's saying. "Or he that teacheth on teaching," if you're going to teach, give yourself to teaching. "Or he that exhorteth on exhortation." "Or he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness, that love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good, be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another." Are you looking? Here it is, "Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer."

You see, everything that God tells us upon our gifts and our ministries, it is to be done vigorously. It is to be done with energy. It is to be done for God's honor and God's glory. And it is work. Whatever it is, teaching, exhorting, ministering, it is work. What we need is a biblical work ethic. I know, and how well I know this, the older we get, the less we can do. Most of you know my dear friend Al Perry.

And Al reminds me from time to time that I should not be doing certain things considering my age. And I always respond to Al, but I'm not as old as you are. Of course, see, he's two months older than I am. And then I also say this. Well, I've been doing it all my life, why should I stop now? So the point I'm trying to make is simple. I realize there's some things I cannot do. And you've probably gotten to the stage, there's some things you cannot do. But you cannot stop doing what you can do.

And what you should do. And you should be thankful that you are still able to do those things. God has given us a biblical work ethic, and I don't care if it's washing dishes, sweeping the floor, digging a ditch, repairing clocks. I don't care what it is. If you can do it in faith and for God's honor and glory, you're fulfilling the biblical mandate and a biblical work ethic. We should be thankful, whatever age we are, of the abilities that God still gives us and enables us to function and carry on and live our lives for His honor and His glory. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. And we pray, Lord, that you would indeed teach us, encourage us, help us to keep on keeping on and to never, ever give up, give in or give out. May we honor thee in all that we say and do. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Work as a Creation Ordinance

Summary: Work was instituted by God before the Fall; man was created to work, not as a punishment but as part of dominion.

Evidence: Man was created for work. He was created to work. He was made basically for work.

The Curse Made Work Onerous

Summary: After sin, work became toilsome, involving sweat, thorns, and struggle, yet it remains a necessary and beneficial discipline.

Evidence: After the fall, the work now has become onerous according to the Bible. Now it comes only through the sweat of our brow.

Idleness Leads to Sin

Summary: Using Ezekiel 16:49, Weaver argues that abundance of idleness led to Sodom's destruction; hard work prevents wickedness.

Evidence: Pride, fullness of bread, an abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters... led to their perversion and their sins.

Work as Ministry and Worship

Summary: All work, done in faith and for God's glory, is an act of obedience and ministry, not merely secular labor.

Evidence: When is the last time that you looked upon your work as a ministry? ...as a means to honor and glorify God?

Condemnation of Slothfulness

Summary: Scripture repeatedly condemns the sluggard; refusal to work is theft, dishonesty, and worse than unbelief.

Evidence: If any would not work, neither should he eat... he denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

Societal Decay from Rejecting Work

Summary: Modern welfare and entitlement mentality mirror Sodom's idleness, leading to theft, riots, and moral collapse.

Evidence: We have now a government that's paying people... not to have a biblical work ethic... paying people to violate the Word of God.

Key Arguments

Work existed before the Fall

Summary: Genesis 1:28 commands subduing and dominion, implying work; Genesis 2:15 explicitly commands dressing and keeping the garden.

Evidence: Work did not come into existence after the fall. Work existed before the fall of man.

The curse made work beneficial

Summary: The ground was cursed 'for thy sake' to prevent idleness and its consequent sins, as seen in Sodom.

Evidence: How is it for our sake that the ground is cursed? ...If you really have to work... you're not going to have time to think of a lot of wickedness.

Government welfare undermines biblical ethic

Summary: Paying people not to work encourages sin and violates 2 Thessalonians 3:10; it is theft from producers.

Evidence: It is theft to take from someone who works and produces and gives it to someone who does not work and will not work.

Work is therapeutic and fulfilling

Summary: Work releases stress, gives satisfaction, and aligns with our created purpose; retirement often leads to early death.

Evidence: Work is therapeutic. When work is done in faith... work releases stress... gives a satisfaction of a job well done.

Sluggards are fools and worse than infidels

Summary: Proverbs and Paul condemn laziness; a man who won't provide for his family denies the faith.

Evidence: The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason... if any provide not for his own... he denied the faith.

There is no free lunch

Summary: Government redistribution devalues currency and steals from workers; inflation is silent theft.

Evidence: There's no such thing as a free lunch. Government cannot give to Steve except what it first takes from Steve.

Scripture References

Genesis 1:28

Context: God's original command to be fruitful, multiply, replenish, subdue, and have dominion, implying work.

Genesis 3:17-19

Context: The curse after the Fall: ground cursed, thorns and thistles, sweat of brow; work becomes onerous.

Genesis 2:15

Context: Adam placed in garden to dress and keep it, showing work as a pre-Fall responsibility.

Ezekiel 16:49

Context: Sodom's iniquity included pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness, linking idleness to sin.

2 Thessalonians 3:10

Context: If any would not work, neither should he eat; a direct command against idleness.

2 Thessalonians 3:11-12

Context: Those who walk disorderly, working not at all, are busybodies; commanded to work quietly and eat their own bread.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

Context: Study to be quiet, do your own business, work with your hands, walk honestly, lack nothing.

1 Timothy 5:8

Context: If any provide not for his own, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

Proverbs 6:6-8

Context: Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, which works without overseer and prepares in summer.

Proverbs 6:9-11

Context: How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? Poverty shall come as an armed man.

Proverbs 10:26

Context: As vinegar to the teeth, so is the sluggard to them that send him; he irritates and fails.

Proverbs 13:4

Context: The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

Proverbs 20:4

Context: The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing.

Proverbs 22:13

Context: The slothful man says, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets; excuses for not working.

Proverbs 26:13

Context: The slothful man says, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets; another excuse.

Proverbs 26:16

Context: The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason; pride prevents instruction.

John 9:4

Context: I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.

Romans 12:6-12

Context: Gifts differing; not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; all ministry is work.

Colossians 3:17

Context: Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus; work as unto the Lord.

Proverbs 21:4

Context: The plowing of the wicked is sin; work without faith and for selfish ends is sinful.

Historical References

John Gill's commentary on Genesis 3:17

Context: Quoted regarding the curse on the ground: the earth turned to a curse by sin, sterility imputed to sin.

R.J. Rushdoony's book 'Revolt Against Maturity'

Context: Referenced as describing modern society's rejection of maturity, work, knowledge, and responsibility.

Great Depression survival stories

Context: Mentioned book 'We Had Everything But Money' to illustrate how people survived through hard work and ingenuity.

Pastor McCurry's 70-year preaching ministry

Context: Example of a man who preached until death, illustrating lifelong work and calling.

Modern welfare statistics (34% of household income from government)

Context: Cited to show dependency and rejection of work ethic in contemporary America.

Chambers of commerce petitioning against supplemental income

Context: Businesses unable to find workers because government payments exceed wages.

Important Quotes

Man was created for work. He was created to work. He was made basically for work.

Significance: Core thesis that work is part of God's original design, not a post-Fall punishment.

If any would not work, neither should he eat.

Significance: Direct biblical command against idleness, foundational for the sermon's application.

It is theft to take from someone who works and produces and gives it to someone who does not work and will not work.

Significance: Moral argument against welfare that enables laziness.

The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

Significance: Contrasts the empty desires of the lazy with the prosperity of the diligent.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Government cannot give to Steve except what it first takes from Steve.

Significance: Economic principle that all government aid is redistribution, not creation.

Work is therapeutic. When work is done in faith and done for God's honor and glory, work releases stress.

Significance: Highlights the personal benefits of work beyond mere provision.

You can live your entire life without playing, but you can't live your life without working and you need to learn to work more than you need to learn to play.

Significance: Father's wisdom prioritizing work over leisure, shaping the preacher's ethic.

Discussion Questions

How does understanding that work was part of God's original design change your view of your daily labor?

Context: Weaver argues work existed before the Fall; it is not a curse but a creation ordinance.

In what ways might the curse of hard work actually be a blessing to restrain sin in our lives?

Context: The curse is 'for thy sake' to prevent idleness and its consequent sins, as seen in Sodom.

How should Christians respond to government policies that incentivize not working?

Context: Weaver criticizes welfare that pays people not to work, calling it theft and violation of Scripture.

What does it mean to view your job as a ministry and do it for God's glory?

Context: Colossians 3:17 and the call to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, even plowing.

Why does the Bible use such strong language against those who refuse to work (thief, worse than infidel)?

Context: 1 Timothy 5:8 and 2 Thessalonians 3:10 equate refusal to provide with denial of the faith.

What can we learn from the ant about work, preparation, and independence?

Context: Proverbs 6:6-8 commands us to consider the ant's ways: working without overseer and storing in summer.

How does the concept of 'no free lunch' apply to inflation and government spending?

Context: Weaver explains that printing money devalues existing currency, making it a hidden tax.

What are practical ways to maintain a biblical work ethic in retirement or old age?

Context: Weaver notes that many die soon after retiring unless they stay active; he plans to preach as long as able.

Applications

Embrace work as God's design

Summary: Recognize that work is not a curse but part of God's original purpose; do it faithfully as unto the Lord.

Evidence: Man was created for work... When is the last time that you looked upon your work as a ministry?

Reject idleness and dependency

Summary: Refuse to live off others' labor; if able, work to provide for yourself and family, avoiding government dependence.

Evidence: If any would not work, neither should he eat... It is theft to take from someone who works and gives it to someone who does not work.

View all labor as worship

Summary: Whatever your task, do it in faith, for God's glory, not merely for selfish gain; even plowing can be sin if done without faith.

Evidence: The plowing of the wicked is sin... do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Learn from the ant: prepare and work diligently

Summary: Be self-motivated, prepare for the future, and work hard without needing external overseers.

Evidence: Go to the ant, thou sluggard... which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer.

Stay active in old age

Summary: Continue working and serving as long as God gives ability; retirement should not mean total inactivity.

Evidence: Most men who retire from their work die within two to five years... I plan on preaching as long as I can preach.

Teach children the value of work

Summary: Prioritize teaching children to work over allowing them to only play; work ethic is essential for life.

Evidence: You can live your entire life without playing, but you can't live your life without working.

Be thankful for the ability to work

Summary: Regardless of age or task, thank God for the strength and opportunity to work, and do it for His honor.

Evidence: We should be thankful, whatever age we are, of the abilities that God still gives us.

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T22:30:05Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T14:00:28Z

Clean Transcript

A Biblical Ethic but a Vulgar Word

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

We'll please to Genesis 1 and Genesis 3. We're going to look at Genesis 1, verse 28, and Genesis 3, verses 17 through 19. The title of the message is, "A Biblical Ethic, but a Vulgar Word." You will understand momentarily. Look in Genesis 1, just verse 28. The Bible says, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Now, if you look in Genesis 3, beginning there with verse 17, "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shalt it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field."
#1 | 0:11 to 1:23 | cleaned
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." There is a four-lettered word that most people absolutely detest and despise. They endeavor to avoid it. They refuse to speak of it, pronounce it, or even engage in its usage. It has become an extremely vulgar word among a lot of people, and seemingly only the lowest of men engage in it and enjoy it and find satisfaction in it. If you haven't guessed, the four-lettered word I'm talking about is work, W-O-R-K. Very few people really, truly love to work. But we have to understand that there is indeed a biblical work ethic. Work did not come into existence after the fall. Work existed before the fall of man. Certainly, it did not become onerous until after the fall, but it did exist before the fall. So I want you to look in verse 28, where God has created man.
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And look what he says in Genesis 1, verse 28, "And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Let me just point out something before I really get into verse 28, and that is really the word replenish. First of all, the word replenish is the Hebrew word male.
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It does not imply that people existed before Adam, neither does it imply that there was a creation before Adam. Some people look at that and they say, well, there must have been a fuller earth at one time, and now God says to replenish it. But the Hebrew word male, just simply, it's translated in our Bibles 250 times, then it's translated, fill 108 times, full 48 times, consecrate 15 times, accomplish 7 times, replenish 7 times, and then there are 8 other ways it is used as well. But it occurs 250 times. So basically, this word literally means to make full, to satisfy, to accomplish and complete. So literally, God said in verse 28, be fruitful and multiply and complete the earth or fill the earth is basically what he was saying. In other words, I created the earth to be full. Go ahead and fill it. There's another word that must be pointed out, and that is the word subdued. He says and subdued it. Now, the word subdued is the Hebrew word kabbash. And that word literally means to bring into subjection, to bring into bondage, to bring under, or to dominate, and to tread down.
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And then, of course, in verse 28, we also have the word dominion. And the Hebrew word there is rada, which means to rule, to prevail, to reign, to have dominion, to dominate, to subjugate, and to tread down.
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Now, when you take these three words, replenish, subdue, and dominate, obviously there is work involved in all of these items. There is indeed a biblical work ethic. Work is an aspect of dominion, and dominion cannot be accomplished without work. So let me spell this out for you. Most people may not want to hear this, but here it is. Man was created for work. He was created to work. He was made basically for work.
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It is just that simple. Now, the interesting thing is this. When God created Adam, He created him mature. That is, He created him full grown. So when God created this mature individual, He put him in the garden and He assigned him responsibility, accountability, and that responsibility included work and knowledge. So man then was supposed to bring everything into captivity unto God for God's honor and God's glory.
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So I want you to watch this. Look in Genesis 2 and verse 15. Here it is spelled out. "And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." Now in verse 15, there is a twofold responsibility that is given to us. First of all, God told Adam to dress the garden. The Hebrew word dress is abod, which means to labor, to work, to service, and to till. And then if you look back at verse 15, he says to dress it and to keep it. The Hebrew word is the word shamar. And the word shamar basically means to watch, to observe, to guard, to protect, and to act as a watchman. So then God placed Adam in the garden and gave him a dual responsibility. He not only had to till and to work the garden, to dress it, keep it dressed, but he also had to guard the garden and protect the garden as well, which of course was work. When you place these thoughts together, it should be easily understood that man then was created for work.
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You cannot work without knowledge. So Adam was created not only with original righteousness and holiness, but he was also created with knowledge as well. He had to know in order to perform the work. And here's the interesting thing. The more he worked and the more he performed his work, then the more knowledge he would attain as well. So inherent in his work, inherent in his dressing the garden and keeping the garden, was responsibility, accountability, and what you and I would say is knowledge and understanding. It is impossible to produce the way we should without knowledge. So we greatly err and we greatly sin, I believe, when we think that our need to know and our need to increase in knowledge and understanding somehow ceases when we graduate from high school or graduate from college.
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And the truth of the matter is this, once you finish those courses, your learning basically has only just begun. And the truth of the matter is this, the school of hard knocks usually teaches you a whole lot more than four years in college. Then I usually tell people, I learned a whole lot more since I have gotten out of college than I ever did in college. And you have to also understand this, obviously in today's leftist, liberals, and Marxist schools, clearly the School of Hard Knocks is going to teach you a whole lot more as well. Now, most people think that somehow if they go through high school or if they go through college and they get that little piece of paper that says diploma written on it, then all is well.
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But let me point out something. A piece of paper is absolutely worthless if you do not have knowledge and understanding. And a piece of paper is absolutely worthless unless you can actually function and do that which really and truly needs to be done. So the point I'm trying to make is it's impossible to really work and or guard or do whatever we're supposed to do without knowledge.
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So here's a couple of questions. When is the last time that you read all the way through the Bible? When is the last time you just simply read a book? When is the last time you listened to a lecture just simply to learn and to increase your knowledge. You remember that passage in Hosea 4 and verse 6, I think is very applicable in our day and time, when God said, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And because you have rejected knowledge, God said, therefore, I'm going to reject you."
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"You will not be a priest unto me. And because you have forsaken my law, God said, also, I will forsake your children as well." So Adam then was placed in that garden to work. He was created for work. But you and I both know that according to the Bible, Adam fell, he sinned. And when you get to Romans 5 and verse 12, the Bible says, "Wherefore as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. Why? For that all have sinned." And then in Romans 5 and verse 19, again, the Bible talks about the offense came by one man. And then when you get to 1 Corinthians 15, especially there, verses 45 through 50, again, we're told that we fell in Adam. So after the fall, the work now has become onerous according to the Bible.
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Now it comes only through the sweat of our brow. So if you look in Genesis chapter 3, and verse 17 again, look what the Bible says. "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Now look at this. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field." Have you ever noticed how easily weeds, stickers, thorns, worthless plants grow?
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You never have to plant them. You never have to water them. You never have to fertilize them. They're just there. And if you ever want a garden that's going to produce or a field that's going to produce, you have to eradicate those weeds. It's just that simple.
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Now, notice if you would, that God said, "Thorns and thistles also shall it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field." So everything has to be cleared out in order to have a profitable crop.
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Now look in verse 19. He says, "...in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return into the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art, and in dust shalt thou return." I want you to tie these things together. I want you to look at the fact that God has cursed the ground in verse 17.
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Now he said in verse 18, thorns and thistles is going to bring forth to you. And then in verse 19, he talks about the sweat of thy face. Thou shalt eat bread. Note, if you would, if when you tie these thoughts together, you're going to see that it is hard, backbreaking, sweat producing work. Along with some smart thinking at times as well as determination grit that are now necessary in order to produce a livelihood. Now before I come back to one of these verses, I want to give you a quote. I want you to listen. John Gill said this concerning "cursed be the ground for thy sake." I'm going to come back to that. But here's the paragraph: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake, the whole earth which was made for man and all things in it which he had the possession and dominion, and might have enjoyed the use of everything in it with comfort and pleasure."
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"That which was man's greatest earthly blessing is now turning to a curse by sin, which is a proof of the exceeding sinfulness of it, and it's just a merit. So in later instances, a fruitful land is turned into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Hence, whenever there is sterility in a country or one of provisions, a famine, it should always be imputed to sin. And this should put us in mind of the sin of the first man and the consequences of that sin."
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"And sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life, meaning that with much toil and trouble in manuring and cultivating the earth, he should get his living out of the produce of it, though with great difficulty. And this would be his case as long as he was on the earth." Now, I want you to think about something for me just a moment. We know from the Bible that the earth is cursed. We know from the Bible that we have plenty of thorns and thistles and all kind of noxious plants as well. But have you ever stopped to think, even with the curse that is on the earth, how much food this earth produces. And when you stop and think of the food that we throw away and the food that is allowed to ruin, can you ever imagine what it might've been like without sin and what the produce of this earth would have been without the curse of the earth being upon it? Now, I want you to look back to verse 17.
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Genesis 3 and verse 17. I want you to think about this truth. Look at this. "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life."
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Now notice what he said. "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." So here's an excellent question. How is it for our sake that the ground is cursed? How is it for our benefit that we now have to earn our living, according to the Bible, by the sweat of our brows? How could this be for our benefit? Undoubtedly, there are a number of answers that could be given, but I want to give you one that you probably have never thought about. I want you to hold Genesis chapter 3, but turn in your Bibles to the book of Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16. And as you turn to the book of Ezekiel, let me ask you this question. Think as you turn there, what was the sin of Sodom? And I know what you're going to think. You're going to say, well, that's obvious. The sin of Sodom was sodomy. That is true, that was a sin of Sodom, but it was not necessarily the sin. There were numerous other sins that led up to that particular sin.
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And if you look in Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse 49, you will see it spelled out. Ezekiel 16 verse 49, God says, "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Here it is. Pride, fullness of bread, an abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me."
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"Therefore I took them away as I saw good." Note, if you would, God said this was the iniquity of Sodom. Pride, fullness of bread, plenty to eat, and an abundance of idleness. Wow. Wow. So it was the pride, the abundance of food and the abundance of idleness that led to their perversion and their sins. Have you ever stopped to think about this? If you really have to work, I mean, if work is an absolute must and you really have to work and you have to really strive to earn your living, you're not going to have time to think of a lot of wickedness. You would certainly not have the time to engage in it, and if you worked hard enough, you would not have the strength to engage in it. So, I'm pointing out the fact, here we are in our culture, here we are in our society, in our day and time, where our government pays people not to work.
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Alice and I were listening to the news coming on this morning, and several chambers of commerce are petitioning the government to stop all of the supplemental giving to people who are not working, because companies can no longer find help. I have had two different men ask me in this past week, could I recommend someone to help them in their work? I mean, they pay well, they work hard, but they can't find any helpers. In fact, there is a sign on our local hardware store that please help yourself. We cannot find enough labor, and if we can give you direction, we'll give you direction, but you must wait on yourself. Isn't that amazing? Anyhow, they were saying that the supplemental income that's being given to these people were $300 was $300 bucks a week not counting what they were already getting. Therefore, the people were making more by staying home and not working than they were at their jobs.
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Why would they go back to their job? Also this past week I read where 34%, now think about this, 34% of all household income in America is from the government. That's a third of the population, 34 percent. So that means 34 percent of 330 million people get all of their money from the federal government. Moreover, when you think about this and the federal government not only pays people not to work, they pay people to be immoral because the more children some of these women have out of marriage, the more money they make. And so obviously, we have, in this day and time, a complete and total denial of what we know as the biblical work ethic. And certainly, we have now a government that's paying people that's not to work, to not work, not to have a biblical work ethic. If I spelled it out, I could say this, they're paying people to violate the Word of God. That's exactly what they're doing.
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Now, we are now reaping some of the same destruction in our land as did Sodom and Gomorrah. because we're now denying a biblical work ethic. Now, work is not simply for our benefit. It is to be done for God's honor and God's glory. You remember that passage in Colossians 1, not Colossians 1, but it's Colossians 3 and verse 17, where God said, "And whatsoever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks unto God the Father by him." So in all that you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. The Bible also in Proverbs 21 and verse 4 says this, "A high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is sin."
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So let me ask you a question. Since God has commanded work, how is it now that the plowing of the wicked is sin? And the answer is, because the wicked do not plow in faith. They do not plow in reference to God's honor and glory. They plow selfishly. They plow without any thought of God whatsoever. And so God says the plowing of the wicked is sin. Now, we must ask these questions. When is the last time that you looked upon your work as a ministry? When is the last time that you looked upon your work, whatever it is, as a means to honor and glorify God? When is the last time you looked upon your work as obedience to the Bible? When is the last time that you looked upon your work as the means that God has given you to support yourself, your family, and His ministry, as well as people who you want to give unto? When is the last time that you thank God for your work? And when is the last time that you thank God that you were able to work?
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I hope you're beginning to see that one of our biggest problems in this day and time is we have lost a biblical work ethic. We have been taught to play and not to work. Here's an interesting thing. This society today, this generation today would have never made it on the frontier. Never. Moreover, this generation today will not make it in a grid-down societal collapse situation. When you stop and think about this, most people can't work. They won't work. They won't study. They won't think. They won't sacrifice. They won't do without. They won't make do on very little.
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I like that cartoon, and it's just a picture of old Archie Bunker seated by George Jefferson. And Bunker's looking at Jefferson saying, the snowflakes of the day would never take in our TV program. And that's about the truth. Alice and I have a book, and it's a very wonderful book. The title is "We Had Everything But Money." And it's the stories of the Great Depression on how people survived and what they did. And some of it was very, very brilliant. And yet they survived that Great Depression.
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Now, all I'm trying to say is most people today don't know how to plant a garden. They don't know how to harvest. They don't know how to can. They could not, if they killed an animal, they could not skin it, gut it, quarter it, cut it up, cook. They don't know. So all I'm saying is when push comes to shove, this generation, this society, it's basically gone far. Now, most of you know that I don't like sports. If there's a ball in it, I don't care one thing about it.
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Just recently, I had a friend who was coming down for a class and he asked me, he said, what are you going to do for the Super Bowl? I said, what do you mean what I'm going to do for the Super Bowl? I said, I want to keep doing what I always do. I said, I don't care one thing about the Super Bowl. I don't even know who's playing. I said, I could care less. And I said, moreover, we don't even have a TV. So if you want to see the Super Bowl when you're down here, you need to let me know so I can make arrangements with someone who does have a TV so you can watch it, because you won't watch it at my house because we don't have a TV. So I don't care anything about sports. I don't care anything about any game that has a ball in it.
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Now there's a reason for that. And here it is. When I was a boy, I had to work all the time. I wanted to play ball, but dad said, no, I need you here and you have to help me work.
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Now, the interesting thing is we had a neighbor who was a friend of my father. He had one son and he and I were exactly the same age. He was captain of the baseball team, captain of the football team, captain of the basketball game. He played every sport imaginable. And I mean, you know, that required you staying hours after school. And so one day I saw his father and I called his name and I said, may I ask you, how is it that your son gets to play ball? And I said, I know you're a farmer like my father and I have to come home and help my father. I can't play. I said, how does your son get to play all these games?
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And he said to me, he said, well, when I was a boy, I had to work all of the time, all the time. He said, I made up my mind if I ever had a son that he would not have to work, that he would be able to enjoy just being a boy and playing sports and doing whatever he wanted to do. Now, let me just say this.
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That man was indeed a very hard working man and respected by everyone in the community. Well, I really liked what he said. So I went home and I told my father what his friend and our neighbor said. And I never will forget what my dad told me. He looked at me and said, son, let me tell you, I need you to help me here on the farm.
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It's no concern of mine what other people do. I need you here. And then he added this. He said, moreover, you can live your entire life without playing, but you can't live your life without working and you need to learn to work more than you need to learn to play.
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Now, I didn't appreciate that at that time, I can assure you, because as a boy, I wanted to play. But let me finish the story. Because my friend who got to play all of the time, went on and became recreational director. I mean, he knew sports. That's all he was in. But my friend was married and divorced three or four different times. And the last job that he had.
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He stole $10,000 from the city and ran off. Later on, he died of cancer. The point I'm trying to make is, I'm not making fun of him, but the point I'm trying to make is his life was a game. All he did was play. All he did was appease and satisfy himself. He never, ever learned to work. And here's where we are in our generation today. We have people who want to play and they do not want to work. There will be a price to pay if you do not learn to work. Moreover, let me point out the fact that work is therapeutic. When work is done in faith and done for God's honor and glory, work releases stress.
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It eliminates poisons from your body through sweat. It gives a satisfaction of a job well done. It enables you to sleep at night, I can assure you. If you do not believe that, you work all day hard. You come home and take a bath and you're ready to go to bed and you will sleep very well. Work is good for us mentally, emotionally and physically. And when we accomplish a task and we accomplish it successfully, there's always a sense of satisfaction. Why? Because God created us for work. And when we do something and we do it right, we're always satisfied and we're fulfilled. And let me point something else out.
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I'm not speaking against this, but I am just pointing it out. You can check this out for yourself on the Internet, but do you realize that most men who retire from their work die within two to five years afterwards? That's a fact. Now, I know that there are exceptions because there are some men who retire from one job and simply just go to another job. I think Pat had about three, didn't he? So I'm just simply saying there are men who are exceptions. And there are men who do retire, and they still don't stop.
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They find something to do at home. They keep gardening. They keep working. They keep exercising. My father-in-law beat the system. He retired at 65 and didn't die until he was 89. But he was an artist. He played tennis and in his eighties he was beating 30 year old men. He played chess. He was the treasurer of the church. He drove the bus on church trips.
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I mean, he just stayed busy. Although he was retired, he did not stop. The point I'm trying to make is this. The golden years are not so golden if you're dead and, people, men especially who retire and become TV addicts and couch potatoes and fill up on potato chips and doughnuts, they're not going to live very long. That's all there is to it. There's nothing for them to live for. You know, the interesting thing is, when I turned 65, a little while back, I had a friend who is now dead. He always teased me. He said, well, you're 65, you can retire now.
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And I thought to myself, I knew he was teasing. I thought, why would I retire? I mean, what would I do? I'm already doing what I want to do. I love what I do. I cannot even envision myself not preaching.
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Now, I know that God called me to preach, and I know that God can retire me. He can disable me. I can have a stroke like anyone else. I can have a heart attack like anyone else. I can die like anyone else. Until he retires me, I plan on preaching as long as I can preach, as long as he gives me breath, as long as he gives me ability. And if I can sit and preach, that's exactly what I'll do. If I can stand and preach, I'll stand and preach.
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Pastor McCurry preached, I think, for 70 years. When his wife died, they had been married 67 years. And when Pastor McCurry was dying, one of the therapists came in trying to encourage him and give him a little spunk and a little reason to live. She asked him, if there was one thing, just one thing that you could do before you go home to be with the Lord, what is it you would like to do? He said one word, preach. Well, yeah, that's true. And you know, I'm just simply saying, obviously, retirement may be beneficial as long as you keep going and as long as you keep doing. But if you sit down and become a couch potato and never, ever do anything, your retirement is not going to last very long.
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Now, you have to remember this, that many of our modern day problems could be resolved with this biblical work ethic. What do I mean by that? Well, let's first of all consider the welfare issue. Here's a great question. Why must we support men, women, and families who refuse to work? It is theft. It is theft to take from someone who works and produces and gives it to someone who does not work and will not work and support them in their sin and their indifference. There is a huge difference between someone who cannot work and someone who will not work. Charity and welfare, according to the Bible, happens to be the responsibility of individuals, families, and churches. It is not the responsibility of government. God says those that will not work, neither should they eat.
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And a man that will starve instead of working should starve, and the quicker he starves, the better. And that's not being ugly. That's not being unkind. That's just being biblical. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians. Look in II Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 10. II Thessalonians chapter 3. Watch, if you would please, verse 10. Here it is. II Thessalonians 3 and verse 10.
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The apostle wrote, "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat." That's very plain. If any will not work, neither should he eat. So then a man is too lazy to work. Let him starve. I got news for you. If a man really thought he was starving or about to starve, I believe he could find some cans by the road to pick up. I believe he could find some bottles to pick up. He could find a ditch to dig. He could find some grass to cut. He would do anything to keep from starving. The point is, God said, if any will not work, neither should eat.
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Now, since you're there, look at verses 11 and 12. Watch this. "For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies." You remember that abundance of idleness? Here it is. Busybodies disorderly. He says, "For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies."
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"Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread." So if you're a Christian, God requires you to work. He requires you to feed yourself and your family.
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Now, look back, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, at verses 11 and 12. I Thessalonians chapter 4, and note if you would please verse 11. Here it is again. He says, "And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing." Isn't that interesting that he tells us that we're required to work with our own hands, to do our own business, that we may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that we may have lack of nothing. In other words, it's very interesting that the apostle said that we should walk honestly toward those that are without. What is he saying? He is saying that if one refuses to work and provide for himself and his family, he is dishonest. And everybody knows it. Even the ungodly, that is those who are without. Even the heathen, he says, understands that you should be working.
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So he says, if you refuse to work, you're just simply dishonest. Now, look, if you would, to 1 Timothy chapter 5, just to show you that the apostle Paul does not pull his punches. Look at it. First Timothy chapter 5 and verse 8. Look what he says. "But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he denied the faith and is worse than an infidel." Isn't that amazing? Now the apostle Paul is saying that a man who does not work, will not work and provide for his own, is not only dishonest, he's worse than an infidel. He's a thief. So he says, if you are refusing to work, you're a thief, you're dishonest, you're not providing for your own, you're worse than an infidel.
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How can a professing Christian who is capable of working be content to live off the government dole? How can any Christian be content to live off the sweat and blood of others? How can any Christian be content to be characterized as worse than an infidel? I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, please, to the book of Proverbs, chapter 6. Proverbs, chapter 6. The interesting thing is, in this passage, when God is going to teach us about work, He teaches us to go to the ant, the lowliest insect. Look what he says. Proverbs 6, beginning there with verse 6. He says, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard. Wow. Consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provided her meat in the summer and gathered their food in the harvest." Now look at it. "Go to the ant, thou sluggard," and then he said to consider her ways and be wise. No one has to tell her to work. The ants work, having no guide, overseer, or ruler. Moreover.
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What do the ants do? They put up. They gather meat in the summer, they gather food in the harvest. They get it while they can get it and put it up for when it's not available. So God is telling us that we are to go to the ant, that we can learn to be hard workers, independent, and learn to prepare.
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Now, I want you to note what else he said in verse six. He said, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard." God condemns sluggards. You know what a sluggard is? A sluggard is someone who is sluggish. I guess, I didn't check it out, but I guess the word comes from the slug. You know how slow that little slug is. I read the other day that a slug is a snail that has been divorced. He lost his house. Well, I don't know, but the slug is so lazy and so slow. That's what a sluggish individual is. It's someone who is lazy and indolent and will not work and will not act and will not consider the future. Let me show you since you're in Proverbs chapter 6. Let's begin reading there with verse 9. Proverbs 6 in verse 9. God asked, "How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou rise 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 traveleth, and thy want as an armed man."
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So God said, here's a sluggard who loves to sleep. He's indolent. He's inactive. He's unconcerned. Therefore, poverty is going to come upon him speedily, unavoidably, and irresistibly. It's going to come like an armed man. He doesn't expect it, but it's coming.
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Now, look in Proverbs 10 and verse 26, Proverbs 10 and verse 26. Again, he's talking about sluggards. "As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him." Now vinegar irritates teeth, smoke irritates the eyes. In other words, God says anybody who sends a sluggard, a lazy, sorry, indolent, worthless man on a mission is going to hurt from it because he's going to fail. He's not going to accomplish anything because he is a sluggard and the sluggard is going to hurt you and not help you. Look in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 4. This is one of my favorite verses, Proverbs 13 and verse 4. The Bible says "The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat."
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And just about every city you drive through, you'll find a lot of men sitting around a burn barrel, smoking, drinking, and they're there early morning, late at night, all during the day. They're not workers. They will not work. And the Bible said the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing. So here's a new car goes by and the sluggard looks at it says, I sure would like to have one of those cars like that. But he'll never have it because he won't work. He won't save. He won't prepare. A sluggard can say, man, I'd like to have a fine house like that, but he'll never have it.
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All sluggards can do is desire. They never possess. But the Bible said the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. Look in Proverbs chapter 20, Proverbs 20 and verse 4. Here it is again. Proverbs 20 and verse 4. "The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold, and therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing." The sluggard shall not plow by reason of the cold. Hmm. The sluggard will always offer multitudinous excuses for not working. It's too cold. It's too hot. It's too early. It's too late. It's too dangerous. I'm afraid. You say dangerous, afraid.
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What's that got to do with work? Well, look in your Bibles to Proverbs 22 and verse 13. I told you there's plenty of excuses. Proverbs 22 and verse 13. "The slothful man says, There's a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets." I can't go outside and work. There's a lion roving around somewhere in the state. You know, I can't go outside. Look at it again in Proverbs 26 and verse 13, Proverbs 26 and verse 13. "The slothful man said, There's a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets."
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I better stay in, it's too dangerous to go out. And so consequently, he does nothing.
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Now, I want you to watch something. There are multitudinous excuses, but here's another excuse. Look in Proverbs chapter 26 and verse 16. This second excuse deals with his own pride, arrogance, and conceit. "The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason." So the sluggard really has no rationality. And he's not willing to listen to reason, because in his pride, in his arrogance, he believes that he is correct. He believes that he's right. A sluggard is not only a sluggard, he's also a fool. Think about this. Look at this verse again. Look at it, if you would. Proverbs 26, verse 16, "The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason." That is, a sluggard is not going to listen to instruction. And the Bible says in Proverbs 1 in verse 7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." So a sluggard is not only a lazy, indolent individual, he's a fool because he will not listen.
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Now, our Lord taught us clearly that there is a time to work. And likewise, He also taught us that there is a time that we cannot work. In John 9 and verse 4, our Lord said this, "I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work." So let me put it to you very plainly. If you're not willing to work when you're able to do so, don't complain when you're unable to do so. If you're not willing to prepare for the future while you can, don't complain when you have nothing.
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You will suffer for being a sluggard. You will suffer for not having a biblical work ethic. Your family will suffer. You will have acted the part of a sluggard and the part of a fool and worse than an infidel according to the Bible. So we must learn to work, learn to make use of our time, and we have to remember that maturity includes work, responsibility, and knowledge.
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And you cannot be mature without those things. It's impossible. God created man to work. Our work only became onerous after the fall. Had men not sinned, it would have been always a pleasure to work.
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Now, let me try to make some applications, and I want you to think about these. The first one is this. R.J. Rushdoony wrote a book many years ago, the title of which is "Revolt Against Maturity." I read the book many years back. And it basically is talking about how in this day and age we are revolting against maturity. Maturity being work, knowledge, and responsibility. And the truth of the matter is, this is exactly where we are in our society. Our country has basically been revolting against maturity for the last 50 to 100 years, because we have abandoned responsibility, accountability, and the work ethic, and we have become absolutely childish and we expect everyone to support us and sacrifice that we may engage in all of our desires and all of our whims and all of our pleasures.
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We have developed an attitude of, you owe me, or they owe me, and if you don't give me what you owe me, I will take it. If you don't believe that, just look at the riots. Look at the stores that are being robbed, ransacked, pillaged, burned. You owe me. And I'll take it whether you give it or not. That is their mentality. And so when you deny a biblical work ethic, inevitably, you're going to produce a society that's going to take and coerce and steal and defraud to get exactly what they want. And that's where we are today.
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The second application is this. There's no such thing as a free lunch. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Government cannot give to Steve except what it first takes from Steve and four or five other people. Government has nothing. It is nothing but politicians and power. That's it. Someone is going to object, and they're going to say, well, government has the power to print money, and so all they've got to do is print the money and give it to us, and that's free. No, that's not free. Because the more money they print, the precious little that you already have is being devalued.
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Inflation is not higher prices. Inflation is the value of your money decreasing. I tell people, when Alice and I got married, I used to give her 10 bucks a week to buy groceries. And I'd kind of fuss at her a little bit if she didn't bring two or three of it back. That means, how long we've been married? 56, seven, I don't know, eight, 59, going on 59 years. That means 58 years ago, she could buy meat, bread, milk, everything we needed for a week for six or seven bucks. You can't even walk out of the grocery store with a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk for six or seven bucks today.
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I'm just simply pointing out the fact inflation is theft. It is a silent theft. Everybody says we're making more money today than we've ever made before. Yes, but it's far more worthless than it's ever been before as well. So we have to understand, there's no such thing as a free lunch. And when you think about the federal government trying to print and give away $1.3 trillion, you better do some preparation because everything is fixing to skyrocket because there's no such thing as a free lunch.
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Now, I want you to turn to one last passage. I want you to turn to Romans chapter 12. I want you to see even in this passage, a biblical work ethic. We oftentimes do not consider this, but everything about the ministry involves work. I never will forget, and I probably told you this, but when I was a boy, I wanted to be a preacher, but only because they only had to work on Sunday and Wednesday night and they could play the rest of the week.
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I was really deceived, I can assure you. But look at Romans chapter 12, beginning there in verse 6. Look what the Bible says, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace of God that is given to us." So God has given each one of us different gifts.
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Now watch, "Whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith." In other words, you do your work according to that which God has given you. "Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering." If God called us to minister, let's do it. That's what he's saying. "Or he that teacheth on teaching," if you're going to teach, give yourself to teaching. "Or he that exhorteth on exhortation."
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"Or he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. He that ruleth with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness, that love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good, be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another." Are you looking? Here it is, "Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer."
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You see, everything that God tells us upon our gifts and our ministries, it is to be done vigorously. It is to be done with energy. It is to be done for God's honor and God's glory. And it is work. Whatever it is, teaching, exhorting, ministering, it is work. What we need is a biblical work ethic. I know, and how well I know this, the older we get, the less we can do. Most of you know my dear friend Al Perry.
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And Al reminds me from time to time that I should not be doing certain things considering my age. And I always respond to Al, but I'm not as old as you are. Of course, see, he's two months older than I am. And then I also say this. Well, I've been doing it all my life, why should I stop now? So the point I'm trying to make is simple. I realize there's some things I cannot do. And you've probably gotten to the stage, there's some things you cannot do. But you cannot stop doing what you can do.
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And what you should do. And you should be thankful that you are still able to do those things. God has given us a biblical work ethic, and I don't care if it's washing dishes, sweeping the floor, digging a ditch, repairing clocks. I don't care what it is. If you can do it in faith and for God's honor and glory, you're fulfilling the biblical mandate and a biblical work ethic. We should be thankful, whatever age we are, of the abilities that God still gives us and enables us to function and carry on and live our lives for His honor and His glory.
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Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. And we pray, Lord, that you would indeed teach us, encourage us, help us to keep on keeping on and to never, ever give up, give in or give out. May we honor thee in all that we say and do. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.
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the the the
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T22:30:05Z

A Biblical Ethic but a Vulgar Word

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

Pastor John Weaver argues that work is a biblical mandate established before the Fall, not a result of sin. Using Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 3:17-19, he shows that man was created for work, which became onerous only after the curse. He warns that rejecting a biblical work ethic leads to societal decay, as seen in Sodom's idleness and modern welfare dependency. The sermon calls believers to view all labor as ministry unto God, to avoid sluggardliness, and to embrace work as therapeutic and God-glorifying.

Opening

Scripture Reading — Genesis 1:28

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

Introduction: Work as a Vulgar Word

Weaver introduces the four-letter word 'work' as something many despise, but asserts a biblical work ethic exists.

Work Before the Fall: Genesis 1:28

Examines the Hebrew words for 'replenish,' 'subdue,' and 'dominion' to show work was part of man's original purpose.

Adam's Responsibility in the Garden: Genesis 2:15

Adam was commanded to dress and keep the garden, involving labor and guarding, requiring knowledge and accountability.

So I want you to watch this. Look in Genesis 2 and verse 15. Here it is spelled out.

Scripture Reading — Genesis 2:15

"And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it."

Work After the Fall: Genesis 3:17-19

The curse made work onerous, with thorns, thistles, and sweat, but even cursed ground produces abundantly.

The Curse for Our Sake: Idleness and Sodom

The curse of hard work is for our benefit, preventing idleness which led to Sodom's sins (Ezekiel 16:49).

And if you look in Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse 49, you will see it spelled out. Ezekiel 16 verse 49, God says,

Scripture Reading — Ezekiel 16:49

"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Here it is. Pride, fullness of bread, an abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy, and they were haughty and committed abomination before me."

Modern Denial of the Work Ethic

Government payments discourage work, leading to societal decay similar to Sodom; 34% of household income from government.

Work as Ministry and Therapy

Work done in faith honors God, releases stress, and provides satisfaction; retirement often leads to early death.

Now there's a reason for that. And here it is. When I was a boy, I had to work all the time. I wanted to play ball, but dad said, no, I need you here and you have to help me work.

Biblical Condemnation of Sluggards

Scripture commands work; those who refuse are thieves, worse than infidels; Proverbs warns sluggards of poverty.

Now, look back, if you would, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, at verses 11 and 12. I Thessalonians chapter 4, and note if you would please verse 11. Here it is again. He says,

Scripture Reading — 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

"And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that you may have lack of nothing."

Scripture Reading — 1 Timothy 5:8

"But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he denied the faith and is worse than an infidel."

Now, look in Proverbs 10 and verse 26, Proverbs 10 and verse 26. Again, he's talking about sluggards.

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 10:26

"As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him."

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 20:4

What's that got to do with work? Well, look in your Bibles to Proverbs 22 and verse 13. I told you there's plenty of excuses. Proverbs 22 and verse 13. "The slothful man says, There's a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets." I can't go outside and work. There's a lion roving around somewhere in the state. You know, I can't go outside. Look at it again in Proverbs 26 and verse 13, Proverbs 26 and verse 13. "The slothful man said, There's a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets."

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 26:16

"The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason."

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 26:16

"The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason."

Now, our Lord taught us clearly that there is a time to work. And likewise, He also taught us that there is a time that we cannot work. In John 9 and verse 4, our Lord said this,

Scripture Reading — John 9:4

"I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work."

Applications and Conclusion

Society revolts against maturity; no free lunch; all gifts are to be used vigorously; be thankful for ability to work.

A Biblical Ethic but a Vulgar Word

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	UpWsf0ZjluI
Subject	Old Testament Studies
Course	Genesis: Creation, Fall, and Dominion
Genre	Sermon
Date	2021-07-04
Dictation Name
Book	Book 075: Genesis — Chapter 17
Source Timed Segments	80

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: Work as a Vulgar Word: Weaver introduces the four-letter word 'work' as something many despise, but asserts a biblical work ethic exists.
Work Before the Fall: Genesis 1:28: Examines the Hebrew words for 'replenish,' 'subdue,' and 'dominion' to show work was part of man's original purpose.
Adam's Responsibility in the Garden: Genesis 2:15: Adam was commanded to dress and keep the garden, involving labor and guarding, requiring knowledge and accountability.
Work After the Fall: Genesis 3:17-19: The curse made work onerous, with thorns, thistles, and sweat, but even cursed ground produces abundantly.
The Curse for Our Sake: Idleness and Sodom: The curse of hard work is for our benefit, preventing idleness which led to Sodom's sins (Ezekiel 16:49).
Modern Denial of the Work Ethic: Government payments discourage work, leading to societal decay similar to Sodom; 34% of household income from government.
Work as Ministry and Therapy: Work done in faith honors God, releases stress, and provides satisfaction; retirement often leads to early death.
Biblical Condemnation of Sluggards: Scripture commands work; those who refuse are thieves, worse than infidels; Proverbs warns sluggards of poverty.
Applications and Conclusion: Society revolts against maturity; no free lunch; all gifts are to be used vigorously; be thankful for ability to work.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Work existed before the Fall

Genesis 1:28 commands subduing and dominion, implying work; Genesis 2:15 explicitly commands dressing and keeping the garden.

Work did not come into existence after the fall. Work existed before the fall of man.

The curse made work beneficial

The ground was cursed 'for thy sake' to prevent idleness and its consequent sins, as seen in Sodom.

How is it for our sake that the ground is cursed? ...If you really have to work... you're not going to have time to think of a lot of wickedness.

Government welfare undermines biblical ethic

Paying people not to work encourages sin and violates 2 Thessalonians 3:10; it is theft from producers.

It is theft to take from someone who works and produces and gives it to someone who does not work and will not work.

Work is therapeutic and fulfilling

Work releases stress, gives satisfaction, and aligns with our created purpose; retirement often leads to early death.

Work is therapeutic. When work is done in faith... work releases stress... gives a satisfaction of a job well done.

Sluggards are fools and worse than infidels

Proverbs and Paul condemn laziness; a man who won't provide for his family denies the faith.

The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason... if any provide not for his own... he denied the faith.

There is no free lunch

Government redistribution devalues currency and steals from workers; inflation is silent theft.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Government cannot give to Steve except what it first takes from Steve.

Scripture References

Genesis 1:28: God's original command to be fruitful, multiply, replenish, subdue, and have dominion, implying work.
Genesis 3:17-19: The curse after the Fall: ground cursed, thorns and thistles, sweat of brow; work becomes onerous.
Genesis 2:15: Adam placed in garden to dress and keep it, showing work as a pre-Fall responsibility.
Ezekiel 16:49: Sodom's iniquity included pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness, linking idleness to sin.
2 Thessalonians 3:10: If any would not work, neither should he eat; a direct command against idleness.
2 Thessalonians 3:11-12: Those who walk disorderly, working not at all, are busybodies; commanded to work quietly and eat their own bread.
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12: Study to be quiet, do your own business, work with your hands, walk honestly, lack nothing.
1 Timothy 5:8: If any provide not for his own, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.
Proverbs 6:6-8: Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, which works without overseer and prepares in summer.
Proverbs 6:9-11: How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? Poverty shall come as an armed man.
Proverbs 10:26: As vinegar to the teeth, so is the sluggard to them that send him; he irritates and fails.
Proverbs 13:4: The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
Proverbs 20:4: The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing.
Proverbs 22:13: The slothful man says, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets; excuses for not working.
Proverbs 26:13: The slothful man says, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets; another excuse.
Proverbs 26:16: The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason; pride prevents instruction.
John 9:4: I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.
Romans 12:6-12: Gifts differing; not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; all ministry is work.
Colossians 3:17: Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus; work as unto the Lord.
Proverbs 21:4: The plowing of the wicked is sin; work without faith and for selfish ends is sinful.

Historical References

John Gill's commentary on Genesis 3:17: Quoted regarding the curse on the ground: the earth turned to a curse by sin, sterility imputed to sin.
R.J. Rushdoony's book 'Revolt Against Maturity': Referenced as describing modern society's rejection of maturity, work, knowledge, and responsibility.
Great Depression survival stories: Mentioned book 'We Had Everything But Money' to illustrate how people survived through hard work and ingenuity.
Pastor McCurry's 70-year preaching ministry: Example of a man who preached until death, illustrating lifelong work and calling.
Modern welfare statistics (34% of household income from government): Cited to show dependency and rejection of work ethic in contemporary America.
Chambers of commerce petitioning against supplemental income: Businesses unable to find workers because government payments exceed wages.

Important Quotes

Man was created for work. He was created to work. He was made basically for work.

Core thesis that work is part of God's original design, not a post-Fall punishment.

If any would not work, neither should he eat.

Direct biblical command against idleness, foundational for the sermon's application.

It is theft to take from someone who works and produces and gives it to someone who does not work and will not work.

Moral argument against welfare that enables laziness.

The soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

Contrasts the empty desires of the lazy with the prosperity of the diligent.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Government cannot give to Steve except what it first takes from Steve.

Economic principle that all government aid is redistribution, not creation.

Work is therapeutic. When work is done in faith and done for God's honor and glory, work releases stress.

Highlights the personal benefits of work beyond mere provision.

You can live your entire life without playing, but you can't live your life without working and you need to learn to work more than you need to learn to play.

Father's wisdom prioritizing work over leisure, shaping the preacher's ethic.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does understanding that work was part of God's original design change your view of your daily labor?

[Context]

Weaver argues work existed before the Fall; it is not a curse but a creation ordinance.

[Question]

In what ways might the curse of hard work actually be a blessing to restrain sin in our lives?

[Context]

The curse is 'for thy sake' to prevent idleness and its consequent sins, as seen in Sodom.

[Question]

How should Christians respond to government policies that incentivize not working?

[Context]

Weaver criticizes welfare that pays people not to work, calling it theft and violation of Scripture.

[Question]

What does it mean to view your job as a ministry and do it for God's glory?

[Context]

Colossians 3:17 and the call to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, even plowing.

[Question]

Why does the Bible use such strong language against those who refuse to work (thief, worse than infidel)?

[Context]

1 Timothy 5:8 and 2 Thessalonians 3:10 equate refusal to provide with denial of the faith.

[Question]

What can we learn from the ant about work, preparation, and independence?

[Context]

Proverbs 6:6-8 commands us to consider the ant's ways: working without overseer and storing in summer.

[Question]

How does the concept of 'no free lunch' apply to inflation and government spending?

[Context]

Weaver explains that printing money devalues existing currency, making it a hidden tax.

[Question]

What are practical ways to maintain a biblical work ethic in retirement or old age?

[Context]

Weaver notes that many die soon after retiring unless they stay active; he plans to preach as long as able.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T14:00:28Z