Lord, how we praise and thank Thee, because Thou hast given Thy life to us. We thank Thee because Thou dost live in us.
We live today not because we are able to live, but because Thou dost live in us. Oh, how we praise and thank Thee that we can just trust ourselves to Thee. We can just give ourselves over to Thee and let Thee live to the glory of the Father.
Oh Lord, we pray that by Thy Holy Spirit we may know more and more of this life—this eternal life, this life that transcends, that glorifies God. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We have been sharing together on the book of Proverbs. Last time we mentioned that wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out seven pillars.
Wisdom deals with a house, and He builds His house with pillars. Now, of course, we know wisdom there is personified. That is to say, this wisdom is our Lord Jesus. He is the wisdom of God, and He is building His house.
You remember how the Lord said, “I will build My church upon this rock.” The Lord is the wisdom, and He is building His house. He builds His house with seven pillars.
He not only lays a good foundation, but He also builds a solid building. It is a house with seven pillars, and these pillars represent character—heavenly character, the character of Christ.
He is building His character into us. And with the character of Himself built in us, that will support the house. That will be a house in which He is pleased to dwell.
So, brothers and sisters, let us remember this: our Lord Jesus is building His house today, and He builds His house with pillars—with character.
Unless this character is being built up in us, He is not able to build His house. So let us remember this as the background.
Two Sundays ago, we mentioned the first pillar. The first pillar is righteousness. As you find in the book of Proverbs, the word righteous, the righteous, is found all over Proverbs.
God is righteous. Therefore, he who practices righteousness is of God. The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Because He is righteous, and His life is in us, it is a righteous life. So the life that is in us demands that we live righteously before God and before man.
How can we live righteously on earth? Number one, if we live according to the dictate of our renewed conscience.
The blood has cleansed and purified our wicked conscience, and has made it new. Our conscience is now sensitive to God, and it is through our conscience that He will tell us what is right and what is wrong.
So, brothers and sisters, if we want to walk righteously on earth, we have to learn to walk according to that renewed conscience that God has given to us.
And number two, to walk righteously, we have to be careful in little things. Oftentimes, you will find that because we neglect small things, we become careless in our life.
So we need to be careful in small things, that we may be righteous in the sight of God and in the sight of man.
Now this morning we would like to go into the second pillar. The second pillar we find in Proverbs is the word diligent or diligence.
So let us read a few verses just to show how, in the book of Proverbs, you find the word diligent. The thought of diligence is everywhere.
He becometh poor that worketh with a slack hand;
But the hand of the diligent maketh rich.— Proverbs 10:4
The hand of the diligent shall bear rule;
But the slothful shall be under tribute.— Proverbs 12:24
The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting;
But the precious substance of men is to the diligent.— Proverbs 12:27
The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing;
But the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.— Proverbs 13:4
The way of the sluggard is as a hedge of thorns;
But the path of the upright is made a highway.— Proverbs 15:19
Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep;
And the idle soul shall suffer hunger.— Proverbs 19:15
The sluggard burieth his hand in the dish,
And will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.— Proverbs 19:24
The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter;
Therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.— Proverbs 20:4
The desire of the sluggard killeth him;
For his hands refuse to labor.— Proverbs 21:25
The sluggard saith, There is a lion without:
I shall be slain in the streets.— Proverbs 22:13
Seest thou a man diligent in his business?
He shall stand before kings;
He shall not stand before mean men.— Proverbs 22:29
I went by the field of the sluggard,
And by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns,
The face thereof was covered with nettles,
And the stone wall thereof was broken down.Then I beheld, and considered well;
I saw, and received instruction:
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep;
So shall thy poverty come as a robber,
And thy want as an armed man.— Proverbs 24:30-34
Here we find the second pillar of wisdom, and it is diligence.
Our God is a very diligent God. You remember when our Lord Jesus was on earth, once He declared, “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.”
Diligence is a character of God. And because our God is diligent, He requires us to develop the same character of diligence.
You know, there is a watchword in the Gospel according to Mark concerning the Son of Man, our Lord Jesus. That watchword you find in Mark is “straightway,” “immediately.”
You will find our Lord Jesus is always immediate. He never pushed things that should be done now to later—to mañana, as the Spanish say: tomorrow.
You know, in our human nature there is that slothfulness. We not only have lazy bones, but laziness is in our very makeup.
When God first created man, even though He provided everything for man in the Garden of Eden, He planted all these beautiful trees, and the fruits were good for food.
And yet God did not put man in the Garden of Eden to live a life of leisure. You remember, He commanded man to till it and to guard it.
He did not want man to be lazy in the Garden of Eden. So far as food was concerned, there was food. If man wanted to live for himself, he could just pluck the fruit and live.
But God said, “No, you are not in the garden just to maintain a living.” Everything was provided, yes, but you are in the garden to till it and to guard it for the glory of God.
Man was not created just to live for himself, just to make a living. If that had been the case in the Garden of Eden, he did not need to do anything. He could have lived a life of leisurely pleasure. But that was not God’s purpose.
Even though everything was provided, God said, “Till it and guard it.”
In the Garden of Eden, before sin entered into this world, there were no thorns, no thistles, no weeds. And yet God said, “Till it.”
The trees still needed to be pruned. Probably the earth around them needed to be loosened, that these trees might bear more fruit to the glory of God.
And not only to till it, but to guard it. Why? Because the Garden of Eden did not have a wall. Adam and Eve were the watchmen there.
And this Garden of Eden was not a small garden. It must have been a tremendous garden. For Adam and Eve to guard that garden, they had to be on watch all the time. They had to be on the beat all the time. They were the policemen of the garden.
They could not live a lazy life. Their life had to be very busy, busily occupied for the glory of God.
But somehow, Eve was not on duty. She was not with her husband, tilling and guarding. Somehow she wandered away from her husband. She wandered away from her duty, and she was engaged in daydreaming.
She looked at one tree. Ah, that looked beautiful. The fruit seemed to be good to eat. And yet God said, “Of all the trees you can freely eat; but this one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, because in the day that you eat thereof, you shall die.”
And as she was daydreaming, engaging idle thoughts, Satan came.
Brothers and sisters, is there not a lesson for us? It is not good for people to be at leisure. It is not good to be lazy, because oftentimes when we are at leisure, when we are daydreaming, temptations come.
And Eve fell into the snare of the devil.
After man sinned, God disciplined him. And you remember in Genesis 3, what did God say to man? God said, “From now on, you have to labor, to toil on the soil, in order to make a living.”
When you were in the garden, you did not need to make a living. Everything was provided. You just needed to live for the glory of God. But now, you have to sweat in order to earn your bread and to make a living for yourself.
It was a punishment in one sense. But in another sense, even in punishment there was mercy. Why? Because God knew if man did not labor and did not work, he would do other things. He would sin.
So by putting him into labor, God was trying to keep him away from idleness and from many things.
The same was true with woman. God told Eve that from then on she would travail, she would be pregnant, she would bear many children. In one sense, she had to go through pain as a punishment; but in another sense, it kept her busy with children, that she might live a godly life.
So here you find God does not want anybody to be lazy. God does not want anyone just to loaf around. It is not good for man.
But after the fall of man, one of the natures of fallen man is laziness.
Brothers and sisters, do you know that laziness is in our bones? If there is an opportunity for you, you certainly will take the easy way.
Just like water always goes down instead of going up, we always try to take the easy way. We always look for a life of ease and leisure. We think that is life.
But God means differently. He wants to rebuild. He wants to build in us a good character—the character of diligence.
What is diligence? The very word diligent means working, applying yourself.
And because you apply yourself with zeal, with eagerness, with earnestness, it involves some pain too. And that is the meaning of the word diligence.
You know, there is a difference between being busy and being diligent. You may be very busy, but you may not be diligent. Why? Because diligence is a character. It is more than an act, a deed, or behavior.
You know, sometimes you are put in a situation where you are kept busy by force. You have to be busy. Your boss is standing there saying, “Oh, do it, do it, finish it quickly.” You are busily occupied, but that does not mean you are diligent.
And oftentimes, if you have been busy for a while, the next moment you relax. Well, you think you deserve a rest, and you do.
So you find that being busy and being diligent are two different things. To be diligent is a character.
No matter what you do, there is diligence there. It is not in the matter with which you are occupied, nor how long or how much you are occupied; it is in the very way you take it. That is diligence.
How can we be diligent? We who have laziness in our very bones cannot change ourselves. But thank God, first He has put a new life in us, and this new life is none other than His life.
And one character, one nature, of this life is diligence. Just as our Lord was diligent while He was on earth, so His life in us is a diligent life. And that life in us will lead us into the way of diligence in a practical way.
We need to come to the Lord and confess, “Lord, there is no diligence in me. I am lazy.”
Unless you are brought to that point, there is not much hope for the Lord to rebuild your character. So first of all, we have to be brought to a point when the Holy Spirit will convict us of our slothfulness.
We always put things aside and say, “Now, I will do it tomorrow,” and tomorrow will be another tomorrow. It becomes a habit to us. If we can get by without doing it right now, we always say, “Well, there is a chance for tomorrow.”
Brothers and sisters, has the Holy Spirit begun to touch that nature of yours? Has the Spirit of God spoken to you concerning your slothfulness, your laziness?
Has He ever touched your conscience when you pushed aside something that should be done today, and you felt uneasy before God? Have you ever been brought to that place? Have you ever tried to be diligent?
Now, if you have gone through all these, I believe one day you will come to a point and say, “Lord, there is just no diligence in me. If You want me to be diligent, You have to do it.”
There is nothing unique in acknowledging that I am a lazy person. Now, it makes you lose face sometimes to acknowledge that, but before God we have to be honest.
And when you realize that diligence is not your character, that your character is just the opposite—laziness—and when you see that laziness is a sin before God, but you cannot overcome it, you cast yourself upon the Lord.
You learn to depend upon His life. That is the beginning of character building.
Number two: after you have confessed that there is not that character or nature in you, do not try to improve yourself, as it were, because it is beyond improvement.
If it still could be improved, the old man would not have been crucified with Christ on the cross.
Then the second thing is this: you learn in your daily life to be open to the Spirit of God, to show you wherein you are not diligent.
We have to be humble enough before God to allow Him to show us wherein we are not diligent. And as the Holy Spirit begins to convict us, learn to cast ourselves upon His mercy and upon His life.
Say, “Lord, I want to be diligent. Be Thou my diligence.”
Cooperate—cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Yield yourself to the Lord. Let the life of the Lord take over and live through you.
Number three: in that process, it involves certain pains. That is the reason why the Lord said, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.”
If we want the life of Christ to live in us, just to be willing is not enough. Sometimes we say, “Lord, we are willing. We are willing to let You live.” But that is not enough.
There is a process involved, and the process is that we must, by the grace of God, learn to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.
When we deny ourselves and take up our cross, we follow Him. His life becomes the law. And you know that involves discipline and pain.
Let us use an illustration. How about writing letters?
Suppose some people write a letter to you. Now, I am not saying that every letter has to be answered. Some letters probably do not require an answer.
But suppose somebody writes a letter to you, and there are certain important things in that letter that you have to answer. Probably there is a time limit to it too. Now, how do you do it?
I do not know about you, but I know myself. I always put it aside and say, “Well, I will answer, but I am not in the mood of answering now.”
When I am in the mood of writing letters, then I will answer it. And in a sense, I always do. My letters pile up, and then one day I will just sit down and write letters, letters, letters, letters, you know.
Well, that is another point. The point is, sometimes there are important letters that need to be answered, but because I put them aside, I forget.
Just like last week, someone called me long distance asking me about certain things. I should have answered, but I forgot completely. The letter is there. I meant to answer it, but I was not in the mood.
And the poor people have to call me long distance. I feel ashamed about it.
So, brothers and sisters, just to use that as an illustration, you know there are many things that should be done, and yet there is always a delaying tactic in our own nature.
Therefore, sometimes you have to be under discipline. Even if you do not feel like it, you have to sit down and write it.
Just by the grace of God, look to Him and answer it. You know, it is a little painful to your soul because you do not like it. But that is the way we allow the life of Christ to grow through us.
What are the feelings of the sluggard, of the slothful? Well, according to the book of Proverbs, we find that the slothful person has a desire, but he gets nothing, and his desire kills him. Why? Because he will not do anything.
In other words, he desires something—the desire is there—but he will not do it. So the desire kills him. He always feels unsatisfied, discontented.
And the feeling of the sluggard is that it is winter. It is always winter to the sluggard. You cannot sow when it is winter, and because of that, when harvest comes, he has nothing.
You remember what our Lord said. The Lord said, “Look, you say it is four months to harvest; but I tell you, the fields are white unto harvest.” That is diligence.
What is the excuse of the slothful? Oh, the slothful says, “There is a lion in the street. I cannot go out.”
The sluggard is always waiting for a better time, an easier and more convenient environment. He does not know that the problem is in him.
What will happen to the sluggard? He will be in want. He will not have anything. He will be in poverty. And he cannot rule; he will be ruled.
Spiritually, how true it is. A sluggard will put his hand in the dish, but he is too lazy to put it into his mouth.
Brothers and sisters, the sluggard says, “A little sleep, just a little bit more,” and poverty comes to his door.
How we need to be disciplined by the Spirit of God, that this slothfulness may be dealt with and a new character may be built in us.
In what areas should we be diligent? I will mention a few areas. Number one: Proverbs 4:23. That is a familiar verse.
Keep thy heart with all diligence;
For out of it are the issues of life.— Proverbs 4:23
Number one, we have to be diligent in keeping our hearts. You know, our heart is the center of our being.
Not only physically speaking—our heart, our cardiac, is the center of our physical being—but the heart in Scripture, in a spiritual and moral sense, is the center of our spiritual life, because out of it are the issues of life.
And the Bible says we need to be very diligent in keeping our heart, lest our heart be enticed, lest our heart be cheated or deceived, lest our heart be hardened.
How can we keep our heart diligently? The only way to have our heart kept is to give our heart to the Lord and let Him keep it.
Therefore, in the same form, you find, “My son, give Me thy heart, and let thine eyes delight in My ways.”
We do not know how to keep our heart. Our heart is so deceitful, it even deceives ourselves. So the only way to keep our heart is to give our heart to the Lord.
“Lord, my heart is Yours. Keep it. Keep my heart, that I may love You with all my heart. Keep my heart from deception. If there is any deception there, show me. Examine my heart. See if there is any wicked way in it.”
Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart. If we give our heart to the Lord, He will keep it. How? We will hear His voice.
The Holy Spirit will speak to us. Whenever there is any problem, the Holy Spirit will speak to us. Do not harden your heart, and that is the way our heart is kept.
Be diligent in it. We have to guard our heart above all things. It is the treasure of your life.
If something is wrong with your heart, then your whole spiritual life collapses. Keep your heart diligently. That is where we need to apply diligence. We have to be watchful and vigilant.
We cannot afford to be lazy. We cannot afford to be careless. We have to watch our heart, keep our heart in its place.
Number two: Hebrews 11:6.
And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him;
For he that cometh to God must believe that He is,
And that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him.— Hebrews 11:6
In the King James Version, it is “seek diligently.” Seek Him diligently, because seeking diligently means seeking Him out. We need to seek God with diligence.
Why? Because sometimes, when you seek Him, He seems to evade you, seems to evade you. And if you give up, you will not find Him.
You have to continue to seek Him. You have to seek Him diligently, and He will reward you.
So, brothers and sisters, in seeking God, we need to be diligent. Do we rise up early in the morning to seek Him? Do we study His Word with diligence?
Seek Him diligently, and He will reward you. You will find Him if you do.
Now, number three: we have to be diligent in keeping His commandments. Deuteronomy 6:17.
Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God,
And His testimonies, and His statutes, which He hath commanded thee.— Deuteronomy 6:17
We should diligently keep His commandments. When the Lord speaks to us, how do we respond?
Do we say, “Yes, but wait a while—a little later”? Or are we like Abraham? When God called Abraham to offer Isaac, you remember what he did. Early in the next morning he rose up, and he went.
Be diligent in keeping His commandments.
Number four: we must be diligent in building character. Second Peter 1:5-11.
Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence,
In your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge;
And in your knowledge self-control; and in your self-control patience;
And in your patience godliness; and in your godliness brotherly kindness;
And in your brotherly kindness love.For if these things are yours and abound,
They make you to be not idle nor unfruitful
Unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near,
Having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence
To make your calling and election sure:
For if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble:
For thus shall be richly supplied unto you
The entrance into the eternal kingdom
Of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.— 2 Peter 1:5-11
In the building of character, we have to be diligent. If we are not diligent, character cannot be produced.
We have to apply ourselves. We have to cooperate with the Holy Spirit daily in order to acquire character.
Number five—I just mention a few things; there are many more—we must diligently keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3-6.
We who are the Lord’s, who are God’s people, need to keep the unity of the Spirit. How easy for God’s people to be divided. How easy for God’s people to be at odds.
How we need to diligently keep the unity of the Spirit in the sevenfold oneness in God. That is something in which we have to be diligent. If we are not diligent, we will not do that.
Number six: we must be diligent in serving God. In our service, we need to be diligent. Second Timothy 2:15.
Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God,
A workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
Handling aright the word of truth.— 2 Timothy 2:15
Romans 12:8 and 11:
Or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting;
He that giveth, let him do it with liberality;
He that ruleth, with diligence;
He that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.In diligence not slothful;
Fervent in spirit;
Serving the Lord.— Romans 12:8, 11
We have to be diligent in serving the Lord. We should be like the good servants and not like the wicked one who is slothful.
Number seven: we must be diligent in spreading the good news. Second Timothy 4:2.
Preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season;
Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.— 2 Timothy 4:2
Colossians 4:5:
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without,
Redeeming the time.— Colossians 4:5
Redeeming opportunities, seizing opportunities, takes diligence. So, brothers and sisters, in these areas we need to be diligent.
And if we are diligent, what will happen? The diligent shall have sustenance. The diligent shall stand before kings. The diligent shall rule.
If we are diligent, we will not be in want, but we may have more to give. If we are diligent, we may be able to serve instead of being served. We will be used by the Lord.
If we are diligent, we will not stand among the mean, but we will stand among kings. We shall reign with Christ.
So, brothers and sisters, these are the blessings of the diligent. May the Lord cultivate and build in every one of us this new character of diligence to the glory of God. Shall we pray?
Lord, we do acknowledge that in ourselves there is not this character of diligence. We do confess how easy it is for us to take the easy way, to be slothful.
We acknowledge that we do not even have the strength to be diligent. But, Lord, Thou art our life. Thou art our strength. And we just commit ourselves to Thee, asking Thee to build this character of diligence in every one of us.
May Thy Holy Spirit watch over us, convict us, and bring us into this character of diligence.
Oh, we ask Thee that we may learn it day by day, in small things, that this character may be built in us, and Thou mayest build Thy church with such a character, to the praise of Thy glory.
We thank Thee, Lord, in Thy precious name. Amen.