Proverbs 12:11, He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.  Part II

Proverbs 30:5, Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

So every word of God is pure meaning every word of God is trustworthy. 

Every word of God can be counted on as right and you can fully commit your life to it. 

So when God tells us that He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread He is engaging with you in a contract and when you are party to a contract with your maker He will always do His part and will never fail.

So the work of tilling land results in bread. 

Work equals bread. 

This is a simple equation that God gives to His people and to go elsewhere for bread is to show yourself without understanding. 

Ecclesiastics 10:18 tells us this:  By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.

Here the bread is the house. 

Without work the house loses its identity as a house and becomes a scrap heap. 

If you listen closely as you walk through your neighborhood you will hear particles of houses falling to the ground and given enough time those particles will result in a debris pile.

God has so ordained your house to become a scrap heap if you do not do your part through work. 

God is not being vindictive in doing this and on the contrary He does this because He loves you. 

It is interesting to see our great efforts in trying to make our houses eternal through the use of modern materials that do not deteriorate as fast but God is a patient God and there is nothing that can outlast God. 

When God makes a principle there is no technology that can abolish that principle. 

God has filled his word with this truth.

Proverbs 13:4 tells us, The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

Here is the preacher’s proverb:  Proverbs 27:23, Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.

In other words, Till the land of your flock and it will bring forth bread.

And in Proverbs 10:5,  He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.

And from Paul in II Thess 3:6-12, Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. ⁷ For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; ⁸ Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: ⁹ Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. ¹⁰ For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. ¹¹ For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. ¹² 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 Paul tells us to withdraw ourselves from the crowd that will not work by the sweat of their brow. 

In other words be among those who tilleth their land, be among those who operate according to God’s word and be not a follower of vain persons who are void of understanding.

Now to be void of understanding is to operate according to the world system.

It is to love the world and the things of the world and the course of the world. 

God’s word says seek not to be rich, the world says seek to be rich and those that fit into this category the Bible declares to be vain persons. 

 My, how the lottery brings out those who seek to be rich by means other than work. 

 Be careful what you wish for, for along with every realized wish comes unintended consequences.

 Now God may bring you to be rich by hard work but to seek to be rich by hook or crook is vanity. 

 Vanity is a balloon puffed up. 

 A balloon without air, shows its reality but pump air into it and it inflates to a size many times larger than its reality. 

 Vanity is the inflation of the mind upon insignificant grounds.

 It is the thinking of oneself more highly than one ought to think.

 It is empty pride, inspired by a haughty conceit of one's personal attainments or decorations.

 It is emptiness. It is desire without any real substance to realize the desire. 

 It is trifling labor that produces no good.

 It is a lack of knowledge of God’s kingdom caused by a filling of the knowledge of Satan’s kingdom and its rules of operation.

 Every creature of God proclaims that God has made all things to be working things and to proclaim otherwise is to proclaim yourself to be without understanding.

 God’s word, and God’s word alone brings understanding which means to hold in the mind, to capture a truth. 

 But capturing a truth only comes by God’s Spirit. 

 Jesus said “Ye must be born again” which among many things means ye must be born to the truth. 

 Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

See means he cannot know or understand God’s kingdom.

 Ye must be born again in order to understand the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  

 And only by this act of God in union with your yielded soul, will you escape being in the company of those who follow vain persons void of understanding.

 We are given to be thinking people, thinking according to God’s word which clearly promotes personal responsibility and self-reliance, in union with our maker who is to be our help in time of need.

 I said self-reliance in union with our maker. 

 God is the only one who is self-reliant.   

He can remove every evidence of His creation but He would still remain. 

 He needs nothing or no one for He indeed is self-reliant. 

 The image of God that He gives to us is His image, an image of self-reliance.

 As God is, so we are to be. 

 We are to be self-reliant, but our self-reliance of course is limited, for God tells us our ultimate reliance is upon Him. 

God says: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart means that God intends for you to be completely dependent upon Him and not to be dependent on anything or anybody else. 

All thine heart means that there is no room left in your heart to trust any other but God. 

Do we really mean it when we sing:  I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name.

Satan does not agree with God. 

 Satan’s efforts since the fall have been to move God’s creation from reliance upon God to reliance upon anything other than God. 

 In our day we are called upon to rely on the government, to rely on programs, to rely on our riches, to rely on our retirement nest egg, to rely on our friends or our family. 

 We are called upon to rely on anything other than God. 

 Our money says: Trust In God, but our heart is called upon to move far from that wise admonition.  

 And far from that wise saying you will surely find that everything else will fail you, only God will bring you through.

 God is to be our help in time of need for God knows: Upon whom you depend determines to whom will be your allegiance.

 So God’s economy is such that work brings bread.

 God created Adam and Eve to work. 

 Work followed creation.    

 God assigned to Adam and Eve the dressing and keeping of the Garden. 

 So the first creation resulted in work and in this God established a pattern for his second creation which is described in:  

2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

 So those of us who are new creations are also given work. 

 And that work is described in Ephesians 2:10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 

One of the absolutes then that takes place when a person enters the family of God through this new creation is a new mission. 

 And that mission is to be a doer of good works. 

God used the phrase “created in Christ Jesus” to tell us we were to be doers of good works following the pattern of Christ Jesus for in Him is to be found the greatest example of the doing of good works.

 Scripture tells us of the connection to Christ that takes place upon this creation, comparing it to the connection of a branch to the vine. 

 Now the branch produces fruit which is determined by the vine. 

 Oranges do not grow on apple trees. 

 So we as being in Christ Jesus are to look at the good works of Christ and know that we are to do good works in a like manner. 

This is to be our purpose as being in the body of Christ. 

 Even as a young boy Jesus was about his father’s business and that business was good works. 

 When confronted by the Jews, John records his words in John 10:32, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 

 When Peter saw a salvation work take place on gentiles in Joppa he recalled to them in Acts 10:38, the good works of Christ. 

 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.  

Notice that the result of God’s anointing of Jesus was evidenced in His going about doing good, and healing.

God does not leave us on our own as to how to do good works for His word furnishes us with all that we need. 

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

 So good works are to be performed according to God’s specifications and God promises to thoroughly furnish you with that which is needed to do good works. 

He assigns the work and He furnishes the tools.

 And that furnishing is called the fruit of the Spirit. 

 Good works for God are to be done in His Spirit and God will give you love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance with which to carry out those good works.

 The Spirit’s good works in you, are not given to lie fallow but are given that you do good works as Christ would do good works. 

 They are the box of tools with which God expects you to accomplish good works in Christ Jesus. 

 For all of our works according to Colossians 3:17 are to be done in Christ’s name. 

 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

 We are to follow the example of God in that we are His workmanship. 

 We are the fruit of His work and therefore as He bears fruit we are also to bear fruit in our walk. 

 According to Colossians 3:12-14 our work will be done in a holy and beloved manner, accompanied by mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, and forgiveness, all motivated by love.

 By the example of a disciple named Tabitha as reported by Luke in Acts 9:36, we are to be full of good works, for her life was one of alms deeds, which are acts of compassion toward the poor.

 According to Titus 2:14 we are to be zealous of good works and by 1 Timothy 6:18 we are told to be rich in good works. 

 Again Titus tells us to maintain good works, Thessalonians tells us to be established in every good work. 

 Colossians tells us we are to be fruitful in every good work.  

 Hebrews tells us to be perfect in every good work and to provoke each other to every good work. 

 Timothy tells us to be prepared unto every good work, and from Corinthians we learn to abound in every good work.

 And those good works are to lead others to glorify God. 

 Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  

 And in 1 Peter 2:12, Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

 Whatever our vocation or occupation in life, we are to remember that we are in the body of Christ. 

 And as the body of Christ we are to work as Christ would work. 

 And for that work Christ promises bread: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body,

 This is the time when we will receive heavenly bread for those works which survive the judgment fires of God.