Dr Greg Bahnsen - Economic Ethics: Labor and Leisure (Part 8)

Hear now the word of God. And God spake all these words, saying, I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them. For I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of generations of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain. For Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath unto Jehovah thy God in it. Thou shalt not do any work thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. And thus far the Reading of God's Word. Time magazine published an essay in 1981, May of that year, entitled what Is the Point of Working? I'd like to read just the opening few paragraphs for you because they express, first of all a common misconception, but secondly, properly identify a real difficulty that our culture and in fact the whole Westernized world, is beginning to face. The essay reads like this. When God foreclosed on Eden, he condemned Adam and Eve to go to work. Work has never recovered from that humiliation. From the beginning, the Lord's Word said that work was something bad, a punishment. The great stone of mortality and toil laid upon a human spirit that might otherwise soar in the infinite, weightless playfulness of grace. A perfectly understandable prejudice against work has prevailed ever since. Most work in the life of the world has been hard, but since it was grindingly inevitable, it hardly seemed worth complaining about very much. Work was simply the business of life, as matter of fact, as sex and breathing. In recent years, however, the ancient discontent has grown elaborately more articulate. The workers usual old bitching has gone to college. Grim tribes of sociologists have reported back from office and factory that most workers find their labor mechanical, boring, imprisoning, stultifying, repetitive, dreary, heartbreaking. In his 1972 book Working Studs, Terkel began this book being about work is by its very nature about violence, violence to the spirit as well as to the body. The historical horrors of industrialization, child labor, Dickinsonian squalor, the dark satanic mills Translate into the 20th century robotic, busy work on the line, tightening the same damn screw on the Camaro firewall assembly, going nuts to the banging, jangling chaplain esque whir of modern materialism and labor bringing forth issue disgorging itself upon the market. The lamentations about how awful work is prompt an answering wail from the management side of the chasm. Nobody wants to work anymore as American productivity, once the exuberant engine of national wealth has dipped to an embarrassingly uncompetitive low, Americans have shaken their heads. The country's old work ethic is dead. About the only good words for it now emanate from Ronald Reagan and certain beer commercials. Let me explain that Those ads are splendidly mythic playlets, romantic idealizations of men and groups who blast through mountains or pour plumbingly molten steel in factories. The work all grit and grin. Then they retire to flip around ice cans of Sacramento beer and debrief one another in a warm sundown glow of accomplishment. As for Reagan, in his presidential campaign, he enshrined work in his rhetorical community of values, along with family, neighborhood, peace. He won by a landslide. Has the American work ethic really expired? The article goes on to give its own point of view. I'm going to give my own point of view in answer to that question this morning. But we're obviously facing something of a crisis. What was once psychologically an individual matter of disgruntlement over the fact that I have to meet a deadline. I have so much work to accomplish, I have to do such and such if I'm going to have the money. I want to put food on the table. That oppressive burden, as the article would present it, that was once suffered in silence has now become a public matter. Not just public in that everybody bitches about work, the article says. Public in the sense that we're beginning to see the decline of productivity in this country. And there is a the fact that this has gone to college, in the words of the essay, means that it's become a matter for academic study. People are now, in fact, sociologically aware that there is a prevailing discontent, if not anger toward work, it's considered violent, in the words of Studs Terkel. Work is violent. It does violence to the human spirit, if not the human body. Work is something terrible. And as the beginning of the essay says, this all originated, of course, when God put work on man as a punishment for sin. If men hadn't sinned, they wouldn't have had to work. They would have enjoyed the blissful playfulness of grace. All of this is miles from the biblical perspective. Why are we talking about this today? Well, it should be very obvious, not only from our decimated numbers over this weekend, but also from what you know, that most people are going to be off work tomorrow. This is the Labor Day weekend. Labor Day weekend. What an appropriate time to talk about labor. And believe me, it was not intended that this series would go all the way to this point. But since it has in God's providence, I couldn't overlook the opportunity to include in our discussion of economic ethics a little discourse on labor, on work and leisure as well. Well, it's the Labor Day weekend. What does Labor Day mean to you? Sounds like the subject of a grammar school essay. What does Labor Day mean to me? Well, when I was growing up, in all honesty, if I hadn't done any study or pulled out an encyclopedia or read some essays here and there, I would have easily thought that Labor Day was simply the way of giving a day off, commemorating a year's. Another year's labor. A day off to commemorate the end of summer. Isn't that right? It's like Memorial Day begins. We have a nice little holiday, begins the summer vacation period, and Labor Day ends it. Isn't that what it's all about? Labor Day is just a real simple thing. I mean, everybody works hard and we get a day off. We're honoring our labor, right? Wrong. Absolutely wrong. The celebration of Labor Day was inaugurated by the Knights of of labor by holding a parade in New York in 1882, and then again in the year 1884, when a resolution by George Lloyd was passed recommending such parades Every year on what he called Labor Day. Why did he call this Labor Day? The origins of Labor Day are tied up with what is called the Eight Hour work movement among organized union labor. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States and Canada, which was created by Peter McGuire, organized the first May Day demonstration. I don't want to confuse you. Labor Day used to be May Day. Okay, And I'll explain why that is. But they organized the first May Day demonstration, the day which had been seized by international socialism in the late 1880s for a workers day of demonstrations. In fact, May Day is probably second to the October Revolution celebration in Russia and other communist countries as the key day to celebrate socialism and communism. Well, in 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, which became the afl, the American Federation of Labor, passed a resolution that eight hours shall constitute a day's labor. And that would begin on May 1, 1886. Okay, so just about 100 years ago, a general strike was called for across the nation on that deadline. And according to the figures I've been able to discover, 350,000 workers struck 11,000 businesses, and 200,000 of those workers then won the eight hour day. However, those demonstrations also brought a confrontation with police in the cargo. Six workers were killed. Two days later, the Haymarket riot of May 4 took place, and an anarchist bomb was thrown. And that virtually blackened the name of organized labor in the minds of most Americans, because it was now seen as an anarchist plot to overthrow our country. This violence and bloodshed ruined the reputation of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions. And thus, Samuel Gompers, a name that you students of American history will recognize. Samuel Gompers reorganized that into the American Federation of Labor to continue the campaigns for organized labor. Now, listen. Karl Marx and Das Kapital wrote that the American Eight hour Movement, which lies behind our Labor Day celebration, the Eight Hour Movement in America, was running with, he said, express speed. That is to say, given his understanding of the workers revolution that was coming, America was moving right along schedule. In fact, probably up speed. And then in the new edition of the book in the 1890s, Frederick Engels wrote in the preface, and I quote, as I write these lines, the proletariat of Europe and America is holding a review of its forces. It is mobilized for the first time in one army, one flag, and fighting one immediate aim. Engels went on to boast that this would shake the capitalists and the landowners of the world. What was he referring to? Referring to the Second International that was being held at that time when he wrote this preface in Paris, because American representatives from the trade unions had come to attend. And since the AFL had decided upon 19-5-1, excuse me, 1890, for their next demonstration in favor of the eight hour day, the international chose the same day for, and I quote, a great international demonstration. So that in all countries, in all cities, on one appointed day, the toiling masses shall demand of the state authorities the legal reduction of the working day and to eight hours. Well, Samuel Gompers and Peter McGuire were intelligent enough to recognize that this was an honor they didn't need. They had. The International Communist Party recognized their movement and their chosen day, and so they backed off of May Day. They didn't want people to get the idea that they were supporting the cause of world revolution. And thus, in 1894, we come to the end of all this. Now, a little piece of history. In 1894, they agitated for another workers holiday, thereby dissociating from the communists. And in particular, Maguire, the leader of the Carpenter's Brotherhood, won a federal holiday set for the first Monday in September to be called Labor Day. That's why we have Labor Day. That's why this weekend is the way it is. Has nothing to do with beaches and suntans and picnics. It has to do with international communism and the eight hour work movement. Well, far be it from me to complain about that. Most people don't remember the historical origins of anything. They don't know much about their family. They don't know much about their country. They don't know much about their denomination or their church. Most people just don't care about where things come from. They care only about what they presently experience. What we presently experience is a day off, a day off from work. And so I'm going to talk to you today about work. I'm going to talk to you about the labor union movement in passing, and I'm going to talk to you about leisure. Something that you all would like to hear about, I'm sure. First place. Would you notice that the Bible says that man was called by God to labor. Man was called by God to labor. Man at his creation was called by God to be a laborer. Turn in your bibles to Genesis 2:15. This little essay that I began with this morning says that labor was imposed on man as a punishment for sin. That's not true. In fact, if you hold that perspective, I dare say you will not ever be able to have a Christian understanding of what most of us, unless we're just independently wealthy, have to go through every day. You will not understand your life if you begin with that premise. As a matter of fact, the Bible says in Genesis 2:15, this is before man had sinned, before the fall, Jehovah. God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Before men fell into sin, God said, dress the garden, keep the garden. Labor here. Now that's a job all of us could hope for. Not just because we like to work outside. I'm not talking about that. But wouldn't we all like to labor in those circumstances, short of sin, without the crushing, oppressing factor of sin? Man was created, and he was not created for leisure. He was not created to have the blissful playfulness of grace. He was created so that under God, he might work in a God glorifying fashion. Mankind's essence, if you will, psychologically anyway, is to work. Man was not made for some other purpose. We talk about the function of things. Sometimes we say that they are good if they meet their function. The ancient Greeks did this. They talk about a knife, and they'd say, a knife is good if it does well what knives are supposed to do. And so cutting is part of the essence of a knife, because that is its good. That's what it strives for, what it should be used for, if nothing else. Well, what is the essence of man? What are we good for? Well, part of the essence of man seen in that perspective, is to work, is to labor. Labor does not originate with the fall. However, labor has been affected by the fall. In fact, if you want to look for the effects of sin, you should, if you read the Genesis account properly, look for them first of all in the area of human relations and sex. For the first thing that happened is that the man and wife were ashamed of their bodies. And they clothed themselves and started to bicker about whose fault it was after all. And you should look for it in the effects on labor. Because in Genesis 3, verse 19, you notice that God says to Adam, well, the 17th and 18th verses have explained that the ground is cursed because of sin. That there's going to be toil, thorns and thistles, and that sort of thing. Then verse 19 says, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it wast thou taken for dust, thou art unto dust shalt thou return. Work was not imposed on mankind because of sin. Sweat was imposed on mankind because of sin. Now, I can't give you a biological account of whether there was or was not sweat before the fall. But you do know that the sweat spoken of here means the frustration, the toil, the agony that will now accompany dressing the ground, tilling the earth, trying to bring forth food out of the scarce circumstances in which man and his wife are to live. The frustration, pain and scarcity which turn productive activity into agonizing labor are the result of the fall. Turn now to Exodus 29. We read this in our scripture reading this morning and you'll notice that not only is part of man's essence to labor, but God has legislated that we shall labor. And he says so in Exodus 20 at the ninth verse, using these six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. God commands you to work six days. Just an aside. Most of your realize this already. That doesn't mean work for somebody else six days. It means do all your work. And all your work may include cleaning the house and mowing the lawn and going to the store and those sorts of things. So there's nothing in this that requires a six day work week out in the industrial community, if you will. What it does require though, is that we recognize that our lives are for the most part to be consumed with labor. Not vacations, not leisure, not laying off, not looking for more time just to goof around. But our lives should be consumed six out of seven days with work. And if we do so, we'll be imitating God's own activity. Verse 11 tells us, for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth. That's quite a lot. Of course with the creative power of God, it probably didn't take tax God, but that's quite a model for us. God made the whole universe in six days. So you work six days and then as he rested the seventh, you rest the seventh. This is how God expects us to earn our money. He doesn't expect us to earn our money and to get ahead in this world through envy, through idle speculating or evil shortcuts. You know, that's real preoccupation of men, isn't it? Those who do not want to go out and put in six days of labor to earn their keep do a lot of sitting around thinking, how can I get my keep without that? What shortcuts can be taken? Now we're not talking about good entrepreneurial work, trying to meet a market need, a legitimate need, and to beat the rest of your competitors to the punch. No, no, that kind of speculating is all well and good and productive. I'm talking about unproductive speculation. How can I Do less and get more. God says in the tenth commandment that we are not to covet. We're not to covet anything. And so we see our hard working neighbor bringing home more money, buying nicer cars, having a boat out there, going on vacation, having a color TV and all these sorts of things. We aren't to sit around and to covetous, we are to rather work six days in fact. 2nd Thessalonians 3 should be consulted here. Verses 7 to 13. I'd like you to read this with me, 2nd Thessalonians the third chapter, And we'll begin our reading at the seventh day. 2nd Thessalonians 3:7. For yourselves know how ye ought to imitate us, for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat bread for naught at any man's hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, not because we have not the right, but to make ourselves an example unto you, that you should imitate us for even when we were with you. This we commanded you, if any will not work, neither let him eat. For we hear of some, that they work not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such, we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. But you, brethren, be not weary in well doing. You want to know how important this is, not just the passing meditation for labor Day. Here Paul says in verse 14, if any man obeys not our word by this epistle, note that man that you have no company with him to the end, that he may be ashamed. Paul says, if a man won't work, don't have any company with him, make him ashamed of his laziness. He should not be a burden on others. He should not eat at other people's hands. He should work and provide for himself. And the apostles themselves are an example of this, although they should make their living by the Gospel. So that we would give an example to you who have this problem. In Thessalonica, when we were with you, we worked night and day to show you that we wouldn't be a burden to anybody else. And so any man who does not work should not eat. We would obviously, because of other scriptural teaching, draw the qualification those who are able to work. We're not talking about those who are handicapped or infirmed by age or some kind of illness, but those who are able bodied, who will not work, should not eat. They should not be supported, they should not be fellowshipped with alright, so God says that you were created to work. You are commanded to work. If you will not work, you should suffer the consequences of that. What the fall brought in was not work, but sway, sweat, the agony that accompanies our work these days. We should recognize as well as Christians that every legitimate endeavor, every legitimate endeavor in this world is a calling, possible calling, or a vocation, if you will, from God. The word vocation comes from the Latin to call, okay? And so God calls us into lines of work. He doesn't simply call us into if we're going to have religious line of work, into the ministry or the missionary service, that every line of work is a divine calling because the cultural mandate had said that man was to subdue all of creation to the glory of God. All of that is the legitimate task and religious work of man. And so what do we learn about the economics of Scripture in this? Scripture calls us to work in a godly calling, and that for four reasons as I see it, two of which I've already explained. First, to fulfill our human purpose before God. Secondly, to advance his kingdom and glory in the world, the cultural mandate. And thirdly, that we will lack nothing necessary for living in first, Thessalonians 4, verses 11 and 12, Paul had said this and that Ye study to be quiet and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you, that ye may walk becomingly toward them that are without and may have need of nothing. Learn to work with your hands, study to do your own work that shall have need of nothing. And so we work first of all, because that's the essence of a man of God or woman of God. Secondly, to advance God's kingdom and glory in the world. Thirdly, that our own needs will be met, and fourthly, very importantly, that we'll have wherewith to support those who are unable to provide for themselves. In Acts 20:35, Paul's words are to this effect when he says in all things I gave you an example that so laboring ye ought to help the weak. And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Why do you labor? So that you'll be able to give and not have to receive. Reminds me of the words in Ephesians 4:28, where Paul is correcting. Well, he's talking about the correction of a man who is repentant for his stealing. But notice these words. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands. The thing that is good in order that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need. Why do we work? We work so that we can give to others. We work so that we can help and support others who can't support themselves. So you see the importance of labor in Scripture. To be grumbling about labor, to be against the idea of working, is to be against the essence of our calling as human beings before God. To be against the advance of God's kingdom in the world. To be unconcerned with the meeting of our own needs, and insensitive and uncharitable toward the support of others who are in need. Work is very important in the economic ethics of God's Word. Let me add to this now, second point. Not only does God expect us to labor, he expects us to be productive in our labors. And this is where we step on some toes. Hopefully not yours, but boy, on our culture at large, a lot of toe stomping is necessary. God is not satisfied if we put in 40 hours a week. It's just that simple. Eight hour work day aside, five day working week aside. The fact is, putting in 40 hours has nothing to do with pleasing the Lord, because He expects us to put in 40 or probably more hours productively pleasing Him. Just marking time, getting through, drawing a paycheck is not enough. In Colossians, the third chapter, verse 23, notice these words of Paul. Whatever you do, work heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing that from the Lord you shall receive the recompense of the inheritance. You serve the Lord Christ. So you find yourself in a line of work which, well, your employer is not even a Christian. He doesn't even appreciate your honesty and your hard work. He doesn't reward your diligence, your creativity, your attempt to get him ahead in the world. You work for somebody like that. And what's the tendency? The tendency is to think, well, why knock myself out for this guy? I'm not going to get any more for it. He doesn't appreciate it. He certainly doesn't deserve it. So I'm just going to do the minimum. But Paul says, no, whatever you do, do it heartily. The Greek means from the soul. Do it from your inner being. Do it with gusto, if we can use a modern idiom, do it enthusiastically, heartily, as unto the Lord, do it because you're working for God, because you'll receive the inheritance from Him. And he is pleased by that. He expects hard work, productive work, and whatever our calling. And thus this means we have to strive not just to be laborers, but to be laborers who put out the highest quality product that we can, who accomplish the most in the time given to us, and put out the best piece of work possible. In fact, I'm going to take just a minute here to read the book of Proverbs to you on two subjects. One, laziness, idleness. The other, work or industry. Where the book of Proverbs has a lot to say about the fact that God expects productivity in our labors. Here's some proverbs for you, if you're wise. You'll hear this about laziness in chapter six. Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise. Witch, having no chief officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers provision in the harvest. How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and your poverty will come in like a vagabond, and your need like an armed man. Chapter 10. Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is the son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is the son who acts shamefully. Verse 26 of chapter 10. Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy one to those who send him. You parents know that's like dealing with children sometimes who act a little little lazy in their chores. Well, think what it's like to be a man who sends you to work to be an employer, and he finds you lazy. It's like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes. Chapter 12. The Hand of the diligent will rule, but the slack hand will be put to forced labor. The same chapter. A slothful man does not roast his prey, but the precious possession of a man is diligence. Chapter 13. The Soul of the slugger craves and gets nothing but the sin. The soul of the diligent is made fat. Chapter 15. The Way of the sluggard is as a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a Highway. Chapter 19. Laziness cast into a deep sleep, but an idle man will suffer hunger. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth. Isn't that a great picture? There's a guy who's so lazy that he gets so tired of reaching down into the dish he can't even bring up his hand to put it in his his mouth anymore. Chapter 20. The slugger does not plow after the autumn, so he begs during the harvest and has nothing. Do not love sleep, lest you become poor. Open your eyes and you will be satisfied with food. I want you to remember that it's not those people who happen to wake up bright and cheerful who are saying this. This is God's word. Don't love sleep. Chapter 21. The Desire of the sluggard puts him to death, for his hands refuse to work. All day long he is craving, while the righteous gives and does not hold back. Chapter 22. The sluggard says, there is a lion outside. I shall be slain in the street. Another well drawn exaggeration to make a point. Hyperbole. The sluggard looks for any reason not to have to get out of bed. He goes, oh no. If I get up I get run over by a car. I better stay in bed today. Chapter 24 I passed by the field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of the man lacking sense. And behold, it was completely overgrown with thistles. Its surface was covered with nettles and its stone wall was broken down. When I saw or reflected upon it, I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Then your poverty will come as a robber and you're want like an armed man. Then. Chapter 26. The sluggard says, There's a lion in the road. A lion is in the open square. As the door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He's weary of bringing it to his mouth again. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer. And then on work. I hope I impress you here by reading all these. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about these matters. On work. Proverbs says in chapter 10 poor is he who works with a negligent hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Chapter 12. He who Tills his land will have plenty of bread, but he who pursues vain things lacks sense. The wicked desires the booty of evil men, but the root of the righteous yields fruit. Chapter 14. In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only poverty. Chapter 16. A worker's appetite works for him, but his hunger urges him on. Chapter 18. He also who is slack in his work is brother to him who destroys. Chapter 22 do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings. He Will not stand before obscure men. Chapter 24. Prepare your work outside and make it ready for yourself in the field afterwards, then build your house. Chapter 27. He who tends the fig tree will eat its fruit. He who cares for his master will be honored. Chapter 28. He who Tills his land will have plenty of food. He who follows empty pursuits will have poverty and plenty. And so God expects us to labor, to fulfill our human calling, to advance his kingdom, to meet our needs, and to supply the needs of others. And he expects us to labor productively, not to be idle, not to be lazy, but to be industrious and to bring forth the highest quality product we can. My third point this morning is that communism and labor unions cannot live up to God's standards. Then communism and labor unions cannot live up to the standard of labor and productivity in the Bible. Communist paradises if you want to do a study historically, the communist paradises, the farms and the communes that have been started have in each and every case failed. I mean, I don't know why that doesn't impress people who continue to advance communism. You can either force people into communism or. Or you can invite them willingly to try the system out. Those who have willingly tried the system out have found that it never works. And it doesn't work because it overlooks the sinful heart of man. Man is lazy. Man is called to labor, but he doesn't want to labor. Secondly, it overlooks the need for the profit incentive. If men are going to work productively, they need to know that they're going to get ahead. By so doing, they aren't going to be leveled down to the need of everybody else. Thirdly, communism overlooks the survival demand. One of the reasons people work is the demand of survival. If they don't work, they shouldn't eat. But communism, overlooking all three of those major points of biblical teaching, tries to put together a worker's paradise. Well, I said you could enter it willingly. If you enter it willingly, you find it doesn't work work. Or you can enter communism forcefully at the point of a gun, which is what you have in Poland and a number of other places today. And lo and behold, in those places they find first that from time to time, virtually every five years, they have to let up on their communist theory of economics and permit some free enterprise so that the system will now recover and that people will be willing to work again. And secondly, when they don't, they find that the workers revolt. The workers paradise is one in which they're being forced at the point of A gun to enter. So this isn't the ideal of labor in God's word by any means. But let me tell you as well on this Labor Day weekend that unionism doesn't match up to God's requirements either. Unions. You see, the essence of the union in our modern world is not the voluntary association of workers who go and negotiate with somebody who can voluntarily dismiss their negotiations if he's not pleased with them. That of course, the idea of using corporate power to wheel and deal with your employer is perfectly fine. The difficulty is when it's backed again at the point of a gun or the end of a saber or the threat of going to jail or of being beat up and having the police look the other way. For you see, when the United States government, our various state governments, recognize union right to control the marketplace in a certain industry, then what they are basically doing is artificially raising wages for the benefit of a select few by bidding out of the market or allowing, or if you will, pressing out of the market, market bidding for the work by other people. Unions demand that only their members be allowed to work in a certain industry, a certain company, and for that reason others who might be willing to bid the price down and to work for less and maybe even give better quality haven't even a chance to get into the market. Let me read just for a moment here from a Christian view of labor unions an essay by Gary North. He he says how can unions exclude outsiders from the bidding process? There are many ways, all used effectively by unions over the decades. First, there's raw power. They beat up their competitors. They throw paint bombs, paper bags filled with paint at the homes of their competitors. They threaten the children of their competitors. Their children exclude the children of the competitors from social activities at school, meaning government school, they shout scab from the picket lines as strikebreakers. Second and most effective, trade unionists have been able to convince legislators to enact legislation that excludes non union workers. Whenever 50% plus one worker vote to choose a particular labor union as the sole bargaining agent in a plant or industry or profession. Professional associations first got such state legislation passed, most notably lawyers, physicians and dentists. Then in 1935, the Wagner act was passed at the national level. It established the National Labor Relations Board, a consistently pro union bureaucratic federal agency. As far as the favored unions are concerned, 75% of all workers are potential scabs. And the National Labor Board keeps most of them in their second choice jobs. The reason 75% is used here is because only only 25% of the American workforce is in unions. But those 25% keep the other 75% out of the market bidding for jobs against them. There is a third less evident means of ensuring labor union monopoly pricing. This is the minimum wage legislation. By passing certain labor laws like minimum wage laws, what those laws do is effectively keep out of the market people who might have some service to offered, but not at the price that the government artificially says all labor must be paid. And so instead of assuring dignity in labor, minimum wage laws in fact tell us that you can't labor, that certain labor is too undignified to be paid. Because if you can't get paid a certain amount, then it isn't worth doing. Well. Unions don't live up to God's standards. I don't think I need to bore you with excruciating detail here. You all know people who work for unions, don't you? Maybe your own family is involved. Maybe you've had relatives who complain that they go to do a day's work and they can't even get it done because the rest of the people in the plant are still playing this game that somebody else's job. No, the union says I can't do that. And so they can't even do what they want to do because they're tripping over the lazy bodies of those who are living up to the union standards. Of course, unionism has reaped its own rewards. It's reaping its own rewards. It's dug its own grave and it's being shoved into it today. Let me give you as an example. The automobile industry. Automobile industry has led the unions in terms of gaining benefits. We get all sorts of benefits that are fixed into a contract. A person's wages are going to go up automatically over a three year period. If that's what the contract says. Nobody can bid against them to get the work done. And so we have auto workers who make quite a bit of money, a lot more money than most PhDs make. Alright? Now if that's what the market demands, that's fine. But you know what's being found out is that the market, market's not demanding American cars anymore. It's demanding cars made outside of this country. Because one, those cars are of a higher quality, they don't have the repair record of American cars and they are less expensive. And now those who are working in the unions, you might think would let reality teach them the lesson then that productivity and competition and all the rest are crucial, as God's word says. But instead what you have is the unions now campaigning for even more laws, you see, to put some kind of a penalty on those who make the cars in foreign countries that are being bought in this country. So that if we can't compete with quality labor at a lower price, what we do is we penalize those who can. All this a violation of God's word, a violation of the free market bringing lower productivity. In fact, the productivity of most industries, apart from the computer industry in our day and age is exasperatingly low. Lower quality and possible bankruptcy for some companies. You know, there are companies who, because they are tied into union contracts, must meet the union demand. And the union demand just may pull them all the way down into bankruptcy. No, Communism and labor unions do not live up to God's standards. And that's the great irony before I move on here, the great irony that on Labor Day, it's because of the unions that we have this day off. Well, enough about labor. God expects you to labor. He expects you to labor with a great deal of productivity and quality. He doesn't expect you to go the route of conditions, communism and labor unions. But having said all of that, my last point is labor is not to consume our lives. Labor is not to consume our lives. For having put you on the course of productive labor, I have to also warn you that there are people who are workaholics, people who act, actually idolize their own labor, pride themselves in their own output, in making more money or what have you. There are people who plain and simply overdo it. That too is a violation of God's word. Would you please notice what Exodus 20, the law of God says? We read it this morning and I've been emphasizing, six days shalt thou labor and do all your work. Because this is the way God operated. We have to finish that command too, to understand it properly. The command begins, remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath unto Jehovah thy God in it, thou shalt not do any work. So now we need to flip flop on this. Not only does God expect you to work, saving six days, and that's what they're given to you. For you are not to work on the 7th, no work on the Sabbath, because that's God's Sabbath. God created the heavens and earth in six days. He rested the seventh. And he expects you to imitate his behavior, to be perfect like he is perfect, to behave as he has behaved. You work six, you rest the seventh. I'm not going to get into a long discussion because it's not really the topic this morning of why it is. What is called the first day of the week is the seventh day of rest for Christians today. But it all works out very nicely. The reason for it is that the new creation God gives life from the dead on the day of resurrection. This now is our day of enjoying the work of the God in recreating man. And now we labor on the basis of that rather than in order to work into that and to enjoy it. But as a matter of fact, whether it's the first or the seventh day of the week, we are not to labor on the Lord's day. Remember what Jesus said. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Obviously that means that we shouldn't get so consumed and petty regulations and trying to order other people's lives around that we're using it to control other people. It is not a day that has been given to us to lord it over. It's been given to us for our benefit. Now, what do you think God's attitude is when we respond? Well, you may think I need it, but that's not the way I see it. God, this is my day. I've worked hard this week. I have one day off and I'm going to do what I want to do on this day. Jesus said the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath. Of course he's Lord over every day of the week. But you remember that the Sabbath has not been given to you to do your own pleasure. It has not been given to you to structure according to your own desires. The Sabbath has not been put into our hands so that we have a holiday every week just to do what we want to do. The Sabbath has been given to us because the Lord thinks we need it and he wants to lord it over our lives on the Sabbath. You see, the Sabbath is the one day that we symbolically tell the world that everything belongs to God. If it was up to me, I'd work, work, work, work, work. But instead I rest on the Sabbath because I rest in the Lord and I say he will provide for me. It's interesting what the Scriptures say about the Sabbath in the first place. Exodus 23:12 tells us that it's meant for refreshment. Six days shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest. That thine ox and thine ass may have rest in the son of thy handmaid, and the sojourner may be refreshed the Sabbath is given by God for the sake of refreshing us in the midst of our labor. And the Sabbath is specified even for times when it's not convenient, even in those times when one would be most inclined to work on and on and on and on to meet immediate demands. Exodus 34, verse 21 teaches us that it seems to me, Six days shalt thou work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest. In plowing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. We might be inclined to say, well, now there are some weeks where I can take a day off. Or there are some weeks when I can afford to go to church in the morning, but I got to have the afternoons for me. But God says no, even in harvest, even during plowing time, even when you'd be most inclined to say, the demand is there, I've got to meet it, you rest. That's just utterly unnatural and unreasonable. That's why it's such a symbolic reminder to everybody around about us that we're not trusting in our own labors. We are people who know the grace of God. We are trusting only in his provision. If we honor His Word, he will honor us. If we do what he tells us, he will see to it that our needs are met. Jesus said, didn't he? Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So even in harvest and plowing time, rest on the Sabbath. And how important is it? In ancient Israel, violating the Sabbath was a capital crime. I can't enter a discussion now as to whether that penalty should be operative to day for that crime. But that tells you how important it is that at least in ancient Israel, it was a matter where your life was taken if you didn't honor it. We do not have the right to play fast and loose with the Sabbath. The Sabbath is God's granted leisure time to us and not a time for laying around. Leisure in the sense of just. Just sleeping it off. For the Sabbath in the Old Testament was a day of holy convocation, a day where God's people came together and they worshiped him and they studied His Word. In the New Testament on the Lord's day, that was the habit of the Christian churches. And the Book of Hebrews says, forsake not the gathering of yourselves together. The Sabbath isn't given for leisure in an idle sense. It's given for leisure as the Lord defines it. You say, but it isn't so leisurely to get up and put on our clothes and come to church. Look, I'VE said that, so I'm sure you've said it too. If the pastor feels that way sometimes, I suppose you too might feel that way. You know, the difficulty is we look at. Oh, in our congregation and away. Two hours in the morning, three hours in the morning is sometimes an intolerable burden. So much so that we have to plan things in our day so that even intrudes on part of those three hours just can't be helped. We just can't plan our lives around church, you know. And of course, if we ever should suggest that we might have a morning service and an evening service, why religious fanatics here at this church, after all, taking another hour of the day for worshiping God on the day that he calls his own, on the day that he says he is Lord of the Sabbath, on the day in which he gives us the rest, on the day in which we're supposed to, according to the book of Hebrews, chapter four, Remember this. A coming age of rest, the entering into the Sabbath rest of heaven, on a day in which we learn to rest in Christ. Because we are not those who expect to be rewarded according to our work only, but according to our trust in God. And on that particular day, one day out of the week, we look at three or four hours as just a bit too much. Now, this lesson on labor and leisure is not just a lesson to teach us how communism and the trade unions don't live up to God's standards. It teaches us, those of us who are hard workers and believers in the free market and competition and that sort of thing, how we don't live up to God's standards either. The one side errs on the side of labor and the other side errs on the side of leisure, because we have the wrong idea of leisure just like others have the wrong idea of labor. Man was made to work, and God grants him the leisure. When we forget that we are called to work, or if we forget that the leisure we have is not our own but God's, then we're going to fall off the path of righteousness one way or the other. Enjoy Labor Day. Enjoy tomorrow off. But hopefully, as you go back to work on Tuesday, going to do so with a perspective that is honoring to God and in the end will prove to be for your own benefit, not only in this life, but in the life to come.