Pastor Martin expounds Proverbs 6:6-11, urging listeners to learn diligence from the ant and avoid the destructive path of the sluggard. He emphasizes that true wisdom requires humility to learn from even the smallest creatures, as the ant's instinctual provision for the future stands in stark contrast to human laziness. Martin warns that persistent idleness, characterized by 'a little more sleep,' leads to poverty and want as surely as a violent robbery, and he specifically applies this warning to parents in training their children.
Primary Texts
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Proverbs 6:6-11This is the central text from which Martin draws all his points about diligence, laziness, and their consequences, using it as the framework for the entire sermon.
The Sluggard's Deceptive Desire for 'Just a Little More'4:05
The Devastating Consequences of Gradual Laziness4:40
Parental Responsibility in Cultivating Diligence6:01
The Cumulative Destruction of Small Indulgences6:46
The Blessings of Diligence and Parental Faithfulness7:17
Key Quotes
“Because God says, that's where I can learn some lessons. So you've got to be humble to sit down and learn from poor little ants.”
“The sluggard has got to be humbled before he'll learn anything. That's the problem with some of you, as we'll see later, the sluggard. You're wiser to excuse his sluggardliness than seven men who can give a reason.”
“He's saying you must look upon this matter of laziness and the picture of the sluggard as that which is utterly destructive. Though the destruction is by degrees and imperceptible at any given point, the end result is as real as though you had been violently robbed. And pillaged by an armed man.”
“You're creating a sluggard.”
“But it's the hour here and the half hour there when he's on his way. When he ought to be working. Brings that household into devastation as real as if a. Thief would come in and stripped everything clean.”
Applications
All listeners
Be humble enough to learn lessons from ants, as God directs.
Get humbled to be delivered from sluggardliness.
Humble yourselves and your children to be delivered from sluggardliness.
Humble yourself and learn, you sluggard.
Shake yourself to realize you have work to be done.
Teach your kids about diligence and not giving in to 'just 15 more minutes' of idleness.
Believe God's word on diligence, lay it to heart, operate that way, and lay it on the consciences of your kids.
A full transcript is available on the
tab. 29 paragraphs, roughly 8 minutes.
Machine transcription
The Imperative to Learn from the Ant
Proverbs chapter 6 is the first and probably the most well-known or maybe it runs a close second to another passage that we will study or maybe it comes neck and neck and it's a photo finish. But very familiar words. The first treatment of the subject of admonition concerning this matter of industry and diligence and its opposite laziness and sluggardliness comes in the form of the imperative of Proverbs 6. Go to the ant, thou sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise.
Now you see right at the outset. Nobody can be truly wise who's not ready to be humbled. If someone was on his way to a given place and someone said, hey, Henry, where are you going? He said, I'm going to school.
Well, where are you going? I'm going to find the nearest anthill.
They said, you what? I'm going to find the nearest anthill. The anthill is going to be my instructor. Well, if you told me you're going to the university to hear Dr. So-and-so, professor of such and such, with three or four earned degrees in philosophy.
And. The rest, but you're going to an anthill. Yep, sure am. Why are you doing that?
Because God says, that's where I can learn some lessons. So you've got to be humble to sit down and learn from poor little ants. You squish them with your foot. You put down one of the little ant things and they go in there and you kill them by the dozens and you never twitch, never have any.
God says, let them be your teacher. So the sluggard has got to be humbled before he'll learn anything. That's the problem with some of you, as we'll see later, the sluggard. You're wiser to excuse his sluggardliness than seven men who can give a reason.
You've got to get humbled. And some of you will never get delivered from your sluggardliness, nor will your children until they're humbled. Go to the ant, thou sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise.
The Ant's Instinctive Wisdom and Diligence
And then he focuses upon the wisdom that comes from the ants, which having no chief or the marginal reading, no judge. They have no moral consciousness and any sense of accountability for what they do. Or don't do. They have no overseer or ruler to bark commands to them.
They operate purely on instincts created in their little ant-like brains and nervous system by almighty God. Little squishy ants. God created them with a programmed mechanism in their created being that causes them to do two things. Provides for bread in the summer.
Provides for bread in the summer. And gathers her food in the harvest. In other words, the ant works diligently where she ought to work, when she ought to work, and nothing deters her. She provides her bread in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.
The Sluggard's Questioned Idleness
Go to an anthill and watch them work and learn from the ant. Then the question, verse 9. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
The ants do not provide and gather by fantasies while they're rolled over on their little sides, dreaming little ant dreams. Whatever ants dream.
They gather and labor. You lazy bum. Humble yourself and learn, you sluggard. How long will you sleep?
When will you arise out of your sleep? When will you shake yourself to realize you have work to be done?
The Sluggard's Deceptive Desire for 'Just a Little More'
And the answer comes back, yet a little sleep. Just a little slumber. A little folding of the hands to sleep. In other words, I don't intend to hibernate all winter like a bear.
I don't have any intention to appear like a perpetual, chronic, lazy bum. I just want an extra hour today. And in the recliner, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, but what will the results be? Look at verse 11, graphic imagery.
The Devastating Consequences of Gradual Laziness
So shall thy poverty come as a robber and thy want or thy need or thy lack as an armed man. He says that laziness that says just a little more sleep when you ought to be working. A little more slumber when you ought to be diligent and active in your legitimate calling. And the end result will be as devastating as if someone came into your home and robbed you in a moment of time of all of your assets.
Or an armed man came in and at the point of a gun, here it's a shielded warrior, comes in and strips you of all your possessions. The only difference is the one is done in the moment. The other is spread out over a period. But the result is exactly the same.
You see what Solomon is saying? He's saying you must look upon this matter of laziness and the picture of the sluggard as that which is utterly destructive. Though the destruction is by degrees and imperceptible at any given point, the end result is as real as though you had been violently robbed. And pillaged by an armed man.
Parental Responsibility in Cultivating Diligence
Now that's what you've got to teach your kids. When they say, but oh mommy, just 15 more minutes in the pool. You say, no. Our schedule for the summer was in the pool from 10 to 11 after we'd done some work in the garden from 9 to 10.
Back in the house from 11 to 12 for this. But mommy, just a little. No. Oh, just a little more walking about in the pool.
Just a little more. And you say, okay. And you give in. And you know what you're doing?
You're creating a sluggard.
And then some poor woman has to live with that bum.
The Cumulative Destruction of Small Indulgences
Oh, he doesn't miss weeks at work. He doesn't miss months at work. He doesn't go hibernate into an irresponsible cop-out. But it's the hour here and the half hour there when he's on his way.
When he ought to be working.
Brings that household into devastation as real as if a. Thief would come in and stripped everything clean. Now, folks, I didn't write it. That's what God says.
The Blessings of Diligence and Parental Faithfulness
Now, if you believe that and you lay that to heart and you operate that way and you're going to be able to lay that on the consciences of your kids and ain't going to like it. But someday they'll rise up and call you blessed and thank God for you keeping on their case about the horrible dangers of being the sluggard and the great rewards of diligence.
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors.
It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
Proverbs 6:6-11
This is the central text from which Martin draws all his points about diligence, laziness, and their consequences, using it as the framework for the entire sermon.
Texts Expounded
auto_stories
This passage forms the core of the sermon, with Martin systematically working through each verse to teach about diligence and the dangers of sluggardliness.