Sunday, October 29, 2017

FOR YOUR OWN GOOD


Proverbs 16:25-26 (KJV)
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.

Doesn’t it seem to you that human nature almost instinctively wants to do the opposite of what God’s teaches us to do?

God told Adam that he was to earn his meal by the sweat of his face.

He was going to have to work if he wanted to eat.

It seems like people have been trying to get around that command for almost always.

The first church in Jerusalem, in an attempt to help its poor and elderly members, sold their possessions and put the money in a common treasury to be dispensed by the Apostles.

It almost immediately created a problem when someone decided their widows weren’t being taken care of as well as some other widows were.

The church could have been derailed if the Apostles had been forced to focus on dispensing money instead of prayer and ministry of the Word.

When the pilgrims came to America, their first attempt to govern themselves was a communal system.
They created:
·   A common home and
·   A common garden

The idea was that everyone would work together and they would all share in the produce.

The problem was that some thought others were not working hard enough and someone got to thinking that, if we are all sharing equally, there was no reason to work harder than the guy doing the least amount of work.

Many of them died and they all almost starved to death.

Next year they instituted a system where each family was responsible to produce their own food.

When they were only going to get to eat what they had themselves produced, they produced an abundance for everyone.

They figured it out – it worked better when everyone was working for themselves.

Inspired by the American Revolution and the War for Independence, France entered into their own series of wars aimed at overthrowing the monarchal system of government for a democratic one.

The American War for Independence lasted seven years

The French had at least three Revolutions beginning in 1789 and did not arrive at a settled government until about1870.

There are a lot of reasons for the differences in outcomes of the American Revolution and the French Revolutions and I cannot pretend to understand much about any of them.

*I do know that America had a unique advantage over France in that there was so much land and natural resources for its population to work with here.

And we had leaders who were Christian in thought, while France had people like the socialist, Karl Marx influencing the thinking of its people.

The French were toying with Communism before the United States had even fought our Civil War.

I do not believe that everything that has happened in the United States has been good and

I do not believe that everything that is happening in the United States right now is going to turn out for good

But I am certain that two things have led to the prosperity and greatness of the United States of America over these two hundred and forty one years.

*I. A FAITH IN GOD
The founders of our country were very different men. In many respects they viewed each of their colonies as separate and independent countries. They viewed people from those different colonies as different from themselves as we would the citizens of Mexico or of Canada.

They all had different ideas concerning faith
They were:
·   Episcopalians,
·   Presbyterians and
·   Congregationalists
(None of the leaders were Baptists but eventually many of them would come under the influence of Baptist thinking.)


Some of them were practicing Christians. Some of them were not.

*But they all shared in common
·   A faith in God and
·   A belief that God was found in the Bible

*Almost to a man they believed that the Republican form of government that they created could only work for a Christian people.

They believed the leaders should be professing Christians
They were not very sympathetic of those who expressed anti-Christian sentiments.

Thomas Payne, writer of Common Sense, one of the most popular things every written in the Colonies in its day was, for all practical purposes, shunned in America after he wrote the ungodly Age of Reason.[1]

When Payne died, no one would bury him. His body was eventually taken to England where the last time it was ever seen it was in someone’s barn. It was later lost.

I am not saying that was right – only that the founders of our country and those who lived in America in that day, had a common faith in the God of the Bible.

The other key to American prosperity is
*II. A CAPITALIST ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Proverbs 16:26 (KJV)
He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.

It is also sometimes called the Judeo-Christian ethic.
2 Thessalonians 3:10 (KJV)
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

Karl Marx and socialist thinking says,
“From each according to his ability to each according to his needs.”[2]

Christianity, the Word of God and capitalism says
Proverbs 16:26 (KJV)
He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.


*The principle is this simple, reward a man for his efforts and his efforts will be a reward for everyone.

Give a guy the freedom to build a business, give him the incentive of success for his work, and he will build a business that will employ countless numbers.

Give a guy the freedom to experiment and try new things, let him dream of selling his inventions for profit, and he will create things like vehicles, telephones, electric lighting, and smart phones.

*Conclusion
The Bible teaches capitalism as the most productive economic system.
Proverbs 16:26 (KJV)
He that laboureth laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.




[1] I understand that even the enlightened Thomas Jefferson discouraged him from publishing it.
[2] Just as the first English settlement almost killed itself with socialist thinking, America is going to kill itself because we have so embraced the heart of this philosophy.

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