The text this evening is found
in the book of Proverbs, the first part of verse 23 in the
14th chapter. Proverbs chapter 14, and the
first part of verse 23, the words, In all labour there is profit. In all labour there is profit,
but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. In this book of Proverbs, of
course we have many wise sayings, part of what is often referred
to as the Wisdom, the Wisdom books of Holy Scripture. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song
of Solomon. This is that part that is usually
referred to under that particular title of wisdom literature. And the wise man speaks many
times of the folly of idleness. In chapter 6, for example, and
there at verse six and the following verses he writes go to the ant
thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise which having no guide
either overseer or ruler provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth
her food in the harvest how long wilt thou sleep oh sluggard When
wilt thou arise out of thy sleep, yet a little sleep, a little
slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall
thy poverty come as one that traveleth, and thy wants as an
armed man. And then again, in a later chapter,
here in chapter 18 and verse 19, we see something of the, rather
verse 9 of chapter 18, we see something of the foolishness
of the sluggard. He also that is slothful in his
work is brother to him that is a great waster. One further example
in chapter 21 and verse 25, the desire of the slothful killeth
him, for his hands refuse to labour." And we could multiply
the references. There are many such verses to
be found throughout the book of Proverbs. The foolishness
of the man who is slothful, followed of his idle ways. And so, here in the text tonight,
We have the same truth declared certainly in the latter part
of the verse, but it's the former part, the opening clause in particular
that I want to set your attention upon. In all labour there is
profit. But as we come to these words,
I want us to seek to understand something of the Gospel, significance
of what is being said. The Lord Jesus said to the Jews
concerning all the Scriptures, search the Scriptures. These
are they that testify of mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ is here
in the book of Proverbs. Certainly we see him there in
the 8th chapter. as the one who is the wisdom
of God. In the New Testament, of course,
Paul speaks of Him who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. But Christ is not only to be
discerned here in Proverbs chapter 8, He is throughout the book. We see Christ, I say, in every
part of Scripture. And so I want us as we come to
these words in this verse to consider something of their spiritual
meaning, the gospel significance of these words. And so the subject
matter I want to take up really is that of spiritual labor. The wise man is speaking of natural
things, that's true. As I've said, he's speaking against
idleness and sloth. But I want us to look at this
text in terms of the spiritual meaning of the word. In all labor
there is profit. Well, let's look then at the
spiritual Liber and first of all is it not known spiritual
Liber experienced when there comes the conviction of sin into
the soul of the sinner is a Libering as that conviction of what he
is and his many transgressions and the reality of his sins is
born in upon his soul we know that the curse of sin is that
bitterness that comes with work, that bitterness that comes with
labour. After the fall of our first parents
there in the third chapter of Genesis we see how God speaks
of the dread consequence of their transgression. He speaks to Adam
in verse 17 And he says, 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 thorns also and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field in
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto
the ground for out of it was thou taken for dust thou art
and unto dust shalt thou return. Here is the cursing man labors
and there is a terrible bitterness involved with his labours. And yet we know that when God
created the man, he was made to work. The labour itself is
not the curse. Man was created, was he not,
in God's image, made in God's likeness, And what is the first
thing that is revealed to us on the page of Holy Scripture
concerning the character of God? It is the fact that He works.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Of course, God doesn't work in
the way that we understand work. He creates by fiat. He creates
by merely speaking the words. God said, And it was so, God
said and it was so. But we have this revelation,
the first revelation, the first thing we see concerning God is
that He is a Creator. And man is given work to perform,
he is set in the garden there in the second chapter of Genesis
and what is he to do? He is to attend to it, he is
to dress the garden. Man is made to work. But when he sins against God,
there is a curse, and the curse involves that bitterness that
comes with his life, the sweat of his brow, or so many difficulties
that he has to confront as he pursues that that God has said
before him. Now, when God's elect come into
the experience of the conviction of sin, they also know something
of spiritual labour. They labour onto it. They feel
it. They feel the bitterness of it.
We know, for example, that the law is a revelation of God. As God reveals himself in scripture,
he doesn't just reveal himself in the gospel of his grace, but
he reveals himself, makes known to us something of his holy character
in the giving of the commandments. The opening words of Exodus chapter
20, God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God
which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. And he goes on
then to give the various commandments, thou shalt have no other gods
before me and so forth. But when God begins, you see,
He is declaring Himself. He is revealing Himself. And
that is recognized, is it not, by the words that Moses speaks
when he recounts those 10 commandments after the 40 years in the wilderness
there on the borders of the promised land. And there in Deuteronomy
chapter 5, remember, Moses repeats the commandments. Verse 6 following, and then when
we come to verse 24 in Deuteronomy 5, we find this statement, He said, Behold the Lord our
God hath showed us his glory and his greatness. And we have
heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. We have seen this
day that God doth talk with man and deliver. Here they are speaking
of their experience here at Mount Sinai. What had God done? God
had showed us, I say, His glory and His greatness. The law reveals to us something
of God. The law is holy and the commandment
holy and just and good. We know, says Paul, that the
law is spiritual. God is a spirit. And God is a
holy and a righteous and a just spirit. And what is man? What is man? Man is a fallen
creature. He was made in God's image, created
after God's likeness. But now, alas, he has sinned against God. He
has fallen short of the glory of God. And there is that ministry
of the law to him. Paul says in Romans 3, 19, we
know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin. Every man stopped, all the
world declared to be guilty. The awful knowledge of sin comes
by that law that reveals to us God in His holy character. And
when we come to the Word of God and we see ourselves as in a
glass, says James, as in a mirror, instead of seeing that reflection
of the glory of God, man made in God's image, We see that man,
alas, is deformed, he's fallen, he's a sinful creature. He does
not anymore bear that divine image in his soul. Oh, it is
an awful thing. The Lord, it's a ministration
of condemnation. It's a ministration of death. Paul knew it. How once upon a
time he thought He was a righteous man when he was a Pharisee, touching
the righteousness which is in the law. Oh, he said he was blameless. He kept it. He kept it. He obeyed
it. But then, when the Lord showed
him the true spirituality of that holy law, what does he say? There, in Romans chapter 7, verse
7, Nay, I had not known sin but by the law. For I have not known
last, except the Lord had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin,
taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead. For I was alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. It wrought in me all manner of
concupiscence, all manner of evil desire. For we saw what
he was, we saw his sin, those sins in his heart, that sink
of iniquity within him, he saw it all in the light of God's
holy law. And yet, when under that conviction
of sin, how true it is, in all labour, in all that spiritual
labour, in all that conviction of sins, there is profit. There
is profit. Orphans, in order to know what
salvation is, we must know what it is to be lost. In order to
know the forgiveness of our sins, we must know what sin is, we
must feel what sin is. We must know this spiritual labour,
this conviction of sin. What does the Lord Jesus say?
We read those words at the end of Matthew 11, that great gospel
invitation, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you learn of
me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest
unto your souls those laboring ones laboring unto the Holy Lord
of God feeling what they are feeling the awful nature of their
sin their transgressions against God but then this spiritual labor
It's not there simply with the conviction of sin. This labour
is something that goes right through the whole experience
of conversion. The whole experience of the sinner's
conversion to God involves labour. Oh friends, there is no easy
believism. There is no easy believism. Many
would speak as if it is so easy, so easy to become a Christian,
so easy to believe. It's not. Now, remember we have
to distinguish between that easy believism and the simplicity
of the Gospel. They're not the same. It is true
that there is a blessed simplicity in the Gospel. Really, the Word of God is very
straightforward. We might complicate it sometimes.
But what is the Word of God? It speaks of law and gospel. We have the Old Testament and
the New Testament. Now, I'm not saying that the Old Testament
is only law. There's a great deal of gospel
in the Old Testament. But we think of the Old Testament
in terms of that law that was given at Mount Sinai. Now that's
called covenant. And then we have the new covenant,
the covenant of grace. And that revelation that we find
in the coming of Christ, His person and His work. You see
how simple the Bible is? It's law and it's gospel. And what does the Bible speak
of? It speaks of sin and salvation. It's that simple. The Bible speaks
of what we are, of sinners, and it speaks of God. Ultimately,
of course, that's what it's all about. It's a revelation of God.
It's a special revelation. God reveals himself in all his
works, in his works of creation, his works of providence. We see
God, we see his greatness in the works of creation, the heavens
declaring his glory, the firmament about us showing his handiwork,
Day unto day uttereth voice, night unto night showeth knowledge.
He's provident, you see, the way he governs the world. How
these things speak to us. But there's this book, this special
revelation that we have here in scripture, and God is the
one who is revealed. But as man was made in God's
image, in God's likeness, so in that sense it's also telling
us about ourselves. I've already said, We have that
figure that James uses, seeing ourselves as in a glass, as in
a mirror. How simple the Bible is. It speaks
of law, it speaks of gospel, it speaks of God, it speaks of
man, it speaks of sin, it speaks of salvation. These are the basic
truths that we have here in Scripture. There is that simplicity with
regards to the way of salvation. So simple a child can understand.
What did the Lord Jesus say? Verily, except ye be converted
and become as little children ye cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. You have to become like a child
in order to enter into the kingdom of God. Oh, it's simple. But as I said, We're not to confuse
that with easy believings and we're not saying that it is easy. There is that labour that is
associated with conversion. That's spiritual labour. Strive,
says the Lord Jesus. Strive to enter in at the straight
gate for many shall seek to enter in thereat and shall not be able. There's a striving That's exertion,
is it not? We read those words in our scripture
reading, Matthew 11 and verse 12, the Kingdom of Heaven says,
Christ suffereth violence and the violence take it by force. That's how we enter in. All this
violence, all this labour, this endeavour, the seeking to enter
in Only recently we were looking at Hebrews 3 and 4 and what the
Apostle says there concerning that rest, and ultimately all
those rests, remember, that we considered on a Thursday evening,
the Sabbath rest, Canaan as the land of rest, even heaven itself,
which is the ultimate place of rest. But really the great truth
that stands out there is gospel rest. That rest that is proclaimed
in the gospel of the grace of God. And what does Paul say there
in Hebrews 4? Let us labour therefore to enter
into that rest. There's a labouring to see involved
in that great blessing of conversion. There's a labouring again. We
have those words of the Lord Jesus. John chapter 6, labour not, he
says, for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you. For him hath God the Father with
a labour. or to labour after that imperishable
meat, to eat the flesh, to drink the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to know what it is to be those who are truly converted, this
spiritual labour that is associated with conversion. Now what is
this spiritual labour that we're speaking of? the labor that goes
with the conviction of sin, but the labor with the whole experience
of conversion. Of course, we know this, that
the work of regeneration, the new birth, is instantaneous. The sinner is born again, and
that's in a moment of time. There was deadness, now there's
life. But in a sense, conversion, you see, is not instantaneous,
it's an experience. What is involved in this experience
of being converted? Well, in part, in part, it is
that waiting on the Lord. How the psalmy speaks of that
waiting time and time again, we're brought to that. We're
brought to the experience where we see that we cannot work out
our own salvation. I'm not saying that we're to
do that for a moment. We cannot save ourselves. It's not our
works that is necessary to our conversion. It's God's work. And when God's dealing with us,
does He not teach us in our souls experience? He makes us feel
that inability. We cannot save ourselves. We
cannot believe of ourselves. So could I not believe, says
John Newton. then all would easily be, I would but cannot, Lord
relieve my help must come from the earth." We have to wait on
God, wait on the Lord says the psalmist, be of good courage
and he shall strengthen my heart, wait I say on the Lord and it
has been rightly observed that waiting in a spiritual sense
is a very active principle, waiting is not passive There's a labouring
there, there's labouring in crying, calling, seeking after God. Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know
that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Now we have to wait
on God, and wait on God, that He would come and save us. And
you say to me that you would believe, but you cannot believe.
Or could I but believe? Think of that man in the Gospel
who cries out to the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe. Help thou
mine unbelief. Or is your unbelief a burden
to you? Is it a sorrow to you? You know,
it is good doctrine when God teaches us these truths in our
own soul's experience. When he makes us feel that accursed
thing that sin is. and our complete and utter inability
to do anything of ourselves or for ourselves. But are you brave? Do you want to believe? You cannot
believe. Now cast that unbelief at the feet of the Lord Jesus,
ask Him to help. Help, Lord, my unbelief. That's what we're to do. But
there's a library in it. As I said, it's not just sitting
back. That sort of awful fatalism that
some would have. Salvation of the Lord, I can
do nothing, they say. I've just got to wait. Passive. Oh, that's the way of folly. That's spiritual idleness. In
all labour there is profit. There is profit. Labouring and
seeking and crying and calling. And it's not implying God hears,
God answers those who come in all their weakness. But then,
this library, we're not only to think of it in terms, this
spiritual library I'm speaking of, in terms of the conviction
of sin, the experience of conversion. Do we not see it in the believer's
life, the believer's conflict that he has? Look at the opening part of the
fifth chapter in Paul's epistle to the Romans. The opening words
of chapter 5 he speaks of justification. The great doctrine of justification. Therefore being justified by
faith he says we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. He is the justified sinner. And
he comes to experience that justification by faith. And you know what justification
means? The judicial term. God accounts
this man as a righteous man. Not having his own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. That righteousness which is of faith. He is trusting in
Christ as the Lord. His righteousness, he has peace
with God. He has access into this grace. He can rejoice. in hope of the
glory of God. But then he goes on to say this,
verse 3, "...not only so, but we glory in tribulations also,
knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience,
and experience hope, and hope maketh not us shame, because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us." Here he is justified, and what his
experience is, what his experience is subsequent to being a justified
sinner. Why? There's conflict. There's
conflict. Glory and then tribulation. What a strange life is this of
the believer. It's so paradoxical this life
of the Christian when his pardon is signed and his peace is procured
From that moment his conflict begins. All the believers' conflict
and the labor of it. We must, says the Apostle, we
must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom. That
is the way into the kingdom, through tribulation. And the
Apostle is simply echoing the words of the Lord Jesus himself,
in the world ye shall have tribulation. That's the believers' Portion
in this world, is it not, in the world ye shall have tribulation,
says Christ. Be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world. Oh, it's that life of faith,
it's that life that looks to Christ and lives on Christ. But
what of the world? What of the flesh? What of the
devil? Here is the believer laboring in all these conflicts, the world.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, the pride of life, it's not of the Father, it's
of the world. All the world, it lies in wickedness. Lies in that wicked one. Even
Satan himself. Prince of the power of the air.
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience
Christ said, remember the prince of this world cometh and hath
nothing in him nothing in Christ the only, holy, righteous, sinless
man though Adam the first was created sinless so too he, but
they transgress, they sinned Ah, but now this man, the second
man, the last Adam, the prince of this world cometh, says Christ,
and hath nothing, nothing to him. Oh, he can come, he can
tempt Christ, but there's nothing he can take advantage of. He
can use all his artillery against the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's
all to no avail. Christ resists the devil. holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sin. But when that wicked
one comes to us, oh, we find so much he can take advantage
of, does he not? This is the believer's experience.
Oh, the devil lays his snares and his jinns and his traps and
he catches us and we fall and we sin And it's a bitter experience. It's a bitter experience. Here
is the believer's conflict. Against the world, against Satan. He is sinful self. The flesh lusting against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these two are
contrary one to the other. And he cannot do the thing that
he would. That's what grieves the Christian.
This is his conflict. This is his better experience.
The good that I would, says Paul, I do not. The evil that I would
not, that I do. O wretched man, that I am who
shall deliver me from the body of this death. And yet, in all
this labour, there is profit. There is profit. I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord, he said. Oh, there's the profit,
you see. He's brought to the end of himself.
He has to look to Christ for everything. made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that as it is
written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." There's
the prophet. To be brought to the end of ourselves,
and to see that everything, all our salvation is only in the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is the believer's conflict,
it's a fight. but it's a good fight. Fight
the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, says
the apostle. The believer's conflict then,
when we think of spiritual labor, but then not only the believer's
conflict, there's also this, the believer's conduct. The believer's
conduct, the way in which he lives his life, the way in which
he conducts himself. We walk by faith, not by sight. We are not only to fight the
good fight of faith, we are to walk the way of faith. And what is that way, that walk? Well, to the Thessalonians Paul
speaks of the work of faith and labor of love and patience of
hope." 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 3. And it has been observed that
that is a short summary of spiritual labor. That is our profitable
labor, you see, that we're reading of here in the text. In all labor
there is profit. Well, let us examine the various
parts of that statement that the Apostle makes. First of all,
he speaks there of the work of faith. The work of faith. It is that faith, Paul says,
that worketh by night. There is a place, is there not,
in the Christian's life for works. But they are works not previous
to faith, they are works that follow faith, works in faith.
By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast,
for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. There it is, you see, there are
those works that follow faith, faith which worketh by love. And isn't it James who has so
much to say with regards to those works? Those works that are not
part of our justification. Justification is only by grace
through faith. It's a looking to Jesus, it's
the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to the believer. And that's that righteousness
that justifies him, nothing of himself. But then, how do we
know that this faith is a genuine faith? James isn't contradicting
the Apostle Paul. James is speaking of that faith
that justifies the work, that makes us to realize the work
that justifies the faith. That's what James is speaking
of, the importance of works. to mark out the genuine character
of the man's faith. Now look at what he says in chapter
2 verse 17, Even so, faith, if
it hath not works, is dead, being alone, or by itself. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast
faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I will show thee my faith, by my works. It goes on at the end of the
chapter to say as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without
works is dead also. These works that follow faith
they indicate to us that that man's faith is a real genuine
faith. And that's vitally important
isn't it? God will have his people to be fruitful in good works. The Lord in John 15 speaks of
the vine and the branches and he says the father is the husbandman
and Christ is the vine and his children are the branches.
What does he say? Concerning those branches, every
branch that beareth fruit, the Father purges it, that it may
bring forth more fruit. By their fruits ye shall know."
All this faith you see, this faith, how God purges it, how
God tries it, how God tests it, the trying of your faith. Worketh
patience, but let patience and its perfect work, that ye may
be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. The believer's conduct, you see.
It's life that the believer's to live. Oh, that faith, it lives,
it labors under load. Though damped, it never dies.
The evidence is there in the way in which the man seeks to
live his life. embraces the totality of the
Word of God. He's not partial in God's Word.
Oh, he loves the promises of the Gospel, exceeding great and
precious promises. But how he also would embrace
all those Gospel precepts. He wants to walk in accordance
with those words of command, those exhortations. He wants
his life to conform more and more to the image of Christ.
He has that faith and it works. It works by Love. The work of
faith. Paul goes on to speak there in
1 Thessalonians 1 of the labour of love. What is the labour of
love? Well, John has much to say concerning
the importance of love in the life of the child of God and
what that love is. It's a very practical grace.
There at the end of chapter 4 in his first epistle, if a man say,
I love God, and hate of his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen? And this commandment have we
from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also. We say we love God, we've not
seen God, we've seen with the eye of faith, we see our brother,
With our natural eye we see the need of our brother. If we love
God, well, let us show our love to God by loving our brother,
our brother in Christ. And what sort of love? Look at
what John says there in the third chapter, verse 17, "...who so
hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him." How good is the love of
God in him! My little children, let us not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Let
us not talk. Let us not just talk about loving
our brother. Oh, let us show the reality of
that love by ministering to him in his need. That's the labour
of love. That's the labour of love. In all labour, you see,
there's profit. All the spiritual labour is profitable.
the work of faith, the labor of love, the patience, the patience
of hope. Paul speaks of there in that
third verse in the first chapter of his first letter to the Thessalonians. The patience, more literally
the endurance, that's what the word really means, the endurance
of hope. All we see do we not. Enduring
hope in a man like Abraham, the father of the faithful. Now he had to endure, waiting,
waiting, for God to fulfill his promise concerning the sea, concerning
Isaac. A hundred years old he was. Paul says, who against hope believed
in hope. That was Abraham. that's the
endurance of hope we refer to those words just now in that
fifth chapter of Romans we glory in tribulations also knowing
that tribulation worketh experience and experience hope and hope
maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts hope maketh not ashamed we are to be those friends of
hope in God lower to labour, I think it's profitable. All
these graces, faith, love, hope, in all labour there is profit. That spiritual labour then, that
we've sought to say something of, to outline in some measure
tonight, that spiritual labour that comes where there is that
real conviction of sin. how we labour on the rich, how
we are to labour in that whole experience of conversion, how we are to be those who are
diligently, perseveringly seeking the face of God, waiting upon
God, not passively, but all that holy activity of waiting, and then as a believer when he
comes to experience the blessing of his salvation when he's justified
what does he experience subsequent to that he has to experience
something of that awful conflict and all the labour that goes
with it assaulted by satan allured by That world that lies in the
wicked one, fearing his old nature yet within him. All that awful
conflict that Paul knows so much of as he writes there in the
seventh chapter of Romans. And then there's the believer's
conduct. And that short summary we have of spiritual labor that
we've sought just now to speak of. The work of faith. The labor
of love. the patience of hope. In all
labour there is profit. Oh God grant that we might find
some profit. Why does God give us His word?
It's a profitable word, is it not? It's given by inspiration
of God, we read. And it is profitable. Well, God
grant some eternal profit to our souls tonight and bless to
us His own word. Amen.