One of the things we have to remember as we have gone through the book of Proverbs is that Solomon was a collector of Proverbs. Solomon had gathered in various Proverbs that indeed were inspired by the Lord, but he had gathered them in from various places. He was not the original author of every part of the book. And it's interesting, the book, it comes to a conclusion with these two chapters that They stand alone in a sense, and they stand together. There's something like books on their own, or they almost look to us, the idea of an appendix would be familiar. I don't want you to give the sense that they're not the Word of God, but each one stands on its own, and it has a different author, and it brings together, just like an appendix brings together the whole book. When you read to the end, you read that additional information from another author, and it really brings it all together. They all, of course, have the marks of inspired scripture, and they should be treated as such, but this chapter, it somewhat stands on its own, and it brings the fullness of the book to the completion. It's interesting that when you come to this man, Eger, and even the next chapter, Lemuel, we don't know who these men were. The names here at the beginning of chapter 30, they're names they don't show up elsewhere in the Bible. There is something even in the original Hebrew to these names that's a little bit foreign. It's very possible that this man, Agur, was not a Hebrew. It's probably likely that he was from a different land. Some people think these may have been pseudonyms, these were kings of Judah, but that seems unlikely. A father is also mentioned here that we don't know anything about his father. And the best interpretation is that these names and this name of Agur, he was probably a leading wise man or even a king from another nation or another area who was a true believer. One of the best arguments I read, of course, you can't prove these things, is that he was very likely an Ishmaelite. It seems that that fits with the names, that he was from some foreign land. We cannot tell for sure. But it's worth thinking about when we come to something like this, in a chapter like this, is that throughout the Bible, there's these writers and these great believers scattered through the Bible that we know very little about and who likely lived in other lands. Think through the Old Testament. You have people like Job. Melchizedek, Jethro, or Ruth, or Rahab, these people from different lands who in a sense their faith I don't know how to put it, but it almost shows up the faith of the people of Israel. There's something incredible and amazing. It's like the centurion in the New Testament and other examples, the good Samaritan, where the Lord uses these people who trust him and who come to faith as beautiful and shining examples of how we ought to think and believe. It's a good reminder. especially in a church like a free reform church, a church like ours, it's a good reminder that from time to time, not even just from time to time, but often we come across the Lord's people in unexpected places. He may bless us richly and he has blessed his church richly throughout the ages with these people that we would not expect. These would have been fairly foreign names to the Israelites. It would have been a surprise to have these people come along like Agor. Job or Melchizedek and yet their wisdom in some profound sense. We we learned so much from it We're simply going to have the theme this morning the wisdom of agar We're going to focus on the first part of the chapter more than the last part but first we'll look at his knowledge of God and then his understanding of human nature. Oh when we come to the wisest men in Scripture We find this deep knowledge of God, but to have that deep knowledge of God, there's a certain self-knowledge, there's a humility, an understanding of their own smallness and their simplicity. You know, Edgar uses a word here and it's accurately translated. He says, surely I'm more stupid than any man. You're probably not even used to hearing a word like stupid off the pulpit, but it's used here, and that's how he describes himself. Agur is a man, he's humanly speaking, even compared to other people, he recognizes he's not particularly smart. Agur, the believer, doesn't think much of himself. actually reminds us of the words of the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul would use similar language about himself and about Christians in the New Testament. Not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. 1 Corinthians 1, 26-27. Those that know the Lord God and those that have faith in God, they can expect that compared to many others in the world, they'll be seen as fools, but they'll even find out. And they'll learn as they come to know the Lord God more and more, and as they grow in their faith, they'll come to learn, I'm not all that great. I'm not all that smart, especially as they look in the mirror, so to speak, and as they get more and more of a view of who they are before the Lord God. And so Agar, he begins his utterance or his testimony by setting the record straight. To put it in our terms, Agar doesn't even think of himself as an average Joe. It's not what he's saying here. He's not even an average Joe. He's a fool. He's a simpleton. He's a man who's been before the face of God and realized he's not much. And the point is, those that know God are humbled. Those that know him most closely, they begin to understand also, I know so little about the Lord God, and I know that he is infinite, and I am finite. We are small, we are limited, and we can even say we are stupid. As we grow in wisdom, true godly wisdom, a believer finds out that God is, in a sense, both knowable and unknowable. God reveals Himself to us in His creation and His Word, but as we come to know more and more about Him in His creation and Word, we realize how little we know, and awe That's really, there's a sense of awe, of reverence. Remember we talked about reverence earlier in Proverbs. A reverent man is a happy man. Edgar here, he's a deeply reverent man. He explains his lack of knowledge in verse four. As humans, we simply, we can't relate our experience to God's. So he gives this picture of looking at what God did in creation and his power over creation. And he says, how can we even begin to compare ourselves to that power and that wisdom? We simply cannot relate our experience to God's. You know, you can get to know a person pretty quickly and fairly well. Sometimes you even meet a person and you sort of connect right away. You realize, oh, we've had very similar jobs, and on vacation we've been to the same places, and you have all these common experiences, and in a few moments you get to know them quite well, and there's a certain connection. Well, Agar's actually saying here the opposite about God. saying God is far beyond our imagination in His power and His ability and His holiness. There's this separation we have from God. God has a power over the wind and over the oceans and the shaping of the earth, and we are nothing in comparison. We know nothing. We understand nothing. We're weak. We're small. Now, I want to submit to you that there's something terrifying about this to the natural man. People do not want to think about this or to believe this, that God is huge and they are small. Imagine for a moment, you can't think of an illustration to illustrate this, but have you ever walked around a construction site where there's really heavy equipment being used? this heavy machinery. You see the excavator from a distance but then you walk up to it and you realize that that bucket could pick up a truck and it's gigantic and there's the earth movers and the excavators around you and you realize that if you stand in the wrong place and you're not careful here, you could be squashed in an instant and you might never be found. That there's this power to this machinery around you that if you are in the way and you cringe to think about it, being in the wrong place. Well, Agur, he's looked at creation and the power of God and what God has done in creation and he sees the effects and he sees the wisdom of God. Later in the chapter, he looks at the locusts and the ants and the badgers and all these different animals and he realizes that in the face of what our world might call intelligent design, in the face of all that, he is so tiny. So small and weak and frail and foolish, he can't even begin to dare to question God. There's such an affinity here, we can't even begin to illustrate it. He marvels at all of creation, the vast ocean, the snakes. thinks about something as little as how does a snake cross a rock? A slippery snake crossing a rocky area, and he says, I don't even understand how that could work and how God could design that snake or that tiny ant or the lion. And by the end of the chapter, Agger, he puts his hand over his mouth and he counsels us, cover your mouth. God is so utterly different than us, so incomparable. You know, there's a healthy correction here. Because the idea has come in modern Christianity that God is just like a human friend. Now I don't want to reduce the idea of the Lord being even like a companion and walking with his people and all the beauty of the incarnation. We'll look at that this afternoon. But there's a healthy correction here. There's this idea in modern Christianity, God is just a human friend. He's like a human friend. We can just approach him and speak to him like we would a human friend. And prayers and songs become somewhat casual and it's hard to tell. Sometimes maybe you listen to the local Christian radio station and you can't really tell, is this person singing a love song about their boyfriend or are they singing about the Lord God? And be careful to judge them and their motives and their faith. but agar he has this deep deep reverence for the Creator he says in verse 4 what is his name now remember When we talk about the name of God in scripture, and even the names of people in scripture, you're not just talking about a label. We pick names because they sound nice often. We say, oh, that's a pretty name, or that's a nice name, or that's a really nice name. But we don't think about the meanings. But name in the Bible, and especially the name of the Lord, that's all about reputation. Usually when you hear name and speaking about the Lord in the Bible, you should think, what is his reputation? What is his character? Remember, their names in the Bible, they were tied to their attributes, to their family, to their history. It was about their reputation. And here Agar is asking, what is God's reputation? What is his character? Really the question is, do you know God? Do you really know God? Not perhaps the God you've made up in your mind or the bits and pieces you've picked that you like about a certain idea of God, but Agar, he's trying to get to the heart and he's saying, do you know God? And if you do know God, it'll change the way you look at yourself. It'll make you very small and humble. It'll make you a poor and a needy sinner. Now it's fascinating to see how much Edgar actually knows about God. I mean, Edgar in this one chapter, he shows that he knows much more about God than anybody of his day almost. Look what he says here. Do you know his name and his son's name? This is one of those bright and blinding revelations. This is a man who knows about Jesus even, thousands of years before Jesus came. It's one of the Old Testament passages that shows us God's people, even in times when they didn't have the full Bible. Remember, Edgar, he didn't have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He didn't have probably even most of the Old Testament in the time that he lived. And yet, here He is, He knows of the Son of God, and He's asking, even we're asking you today, do you know the name of the Son? Do you know about Jesus? Do you know about the grace and the mercy that is in Jesus Christ? That His name is the name above every names. He's the Lord of lords and the King of kings. He's the one who has mercy and grace and holiness and justice, and in Him is found everything that you need. So Agar asks, at least probably a thousand years before Christ, or 800 or so, we don't know, but he asks, do you know God? Do you know Jesus, Agar? He was a small, stupid, poor, and needy man. He was a sinner. And the next verses, they make it very clear. He knew the gospel, the same gospel in Proverbs we looked at last week. Look at verse 5. Every word of God is pure. He's a shield to those who put their trust in him. Agur was a man who loved the Bible. What parts he would have had at that time, he saw it as inspired and pure and holy. And he saw his need for this shield. The word shield, literally, it's a battle shield. It's a piece of equipment, but it was also less literally used for the way that a king cared for their people. A favor of a king. If you were under a king's rule and you lived in his well-organized and defended kingdom, you lived under that king's shield. He took care of you. He covered you. And here, God is Agur's shield, and that shield, it's found through faith and trust. See here again, the gospel in Proverbs, a confession of faith. A poor and needy sinner, we'll see that even more in the next verses. Agur is a man who knows he's a sinner. He can't take care of himself. He sees dangers of his own folly, and he prays for the Lord's care. And so these questions, they really need to be asked. Do you know God? Do you know His Son? Do you know why you need the Son of God? Do you know His Word? Do you know your need for God's care, for His shielding, lest you become the object of His wrath? Do you know your need for His grace and mercy in Jesus Christ? The call here is, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Search His Word. Don't look for your own way. Agger cautions about adding to the words of God. Some of these verses to us, when we first read them, they might feel like he's jumping around, but he's not, actually. If you go through this proverb chapter very carefully, one verse relates to the next very closely, all the way through, actually. It takes a moment to think about it, but there's a humility to worshiping the God of his word, and there's a certain pride that tries to make God who we want him to be, that adds to his word. Now there are those who, because they weren't happy with the holy and great God of the Bible, they wrote whole new Bibles, so to speak. You can think of the Book of Mormon, or you can think of the Quran, or some of the other writings that are out there. But what we need to think of here is don't point the finger so quickly, even though it's horrible and it's sad, those who have tried to write their own Bibles. We need to think here of our own tendencies. Do we have a tendency to manufacture our own religion, to make up our own idea of who God is, to add to the Bible? Maybe start with some parts, to read some favorite passages. but then reshape God by forgetting other parts and adding some parts to the Bible. And in the end, we end up a liar, rebuked and judged. You need to know God as He is and as His Word reveals Him to be. And if you do, again, you'll be humbled. You'll admit you're a sinner. We really get a view into Edgar's heart. in verses 7 through 9. We already looked at those verses a little more in depth in a sermon on poverty and riches. We won't go too deep into them at this time. But here's a prayer that shows this deep self-knowledge in one practical area. He wants to avoid falsehood. It's a word closely related to idolatry in the Old Testament. He wants to avoid, you have to think of this whole section, Agur wants to avoid getting wrong ideas of God and making God in his own image. And he worries a little bit, or he prays for, that he'd be shepherded, and that God would arrange the circumstances of his life in ways that would keep his focus on the Lord. He wants a life, practically speaking, that will keep his faith healthy. He recognized, if I have too much, I get too rich, I'll forget God. If I have too little, I might profane, I might be angry with God. So he sees this great danger, and he prays for a life that keeps him focused on the truth about God. You know, it's easy to lose touch with a person. It's also very easy in a human sense to lose touch with the Lord God. Begin to forget to read his word. And in times of materialism and in times of so much prosperity, that's a great danger. Sometimes we lose touch with a person. We move to a different area. and a few years pass, and we think it would be nice to catch up with them. And then we do catch up with them, and we sit down, perhaps, we have that coffee, or we have them over, and we realize how much we forgot about them, forgot all those little things about them that sort of annoyed us or bothered us, and certain traits were stretched and faded, and maybe we thought too much of them or too little of them than we should have. And so Agar here, he feels that the passing of time and too much prosperity will lead him to false views of God, to forgetting God, to really a new God of prosperity. Or poverty could change his idea of who God is, and he's realistic enough about his own weakness to pray this. You know, I said in the last sermon when we looked at this, aren't we more prone to say, or to think in our hearts, well, Lord, give me riches, but make it so I can handle them and use them for lots of good. That might be how we would sooner think. Lord, help me to have lots, but then use it well for your glory and be a kingdom builder. But you see, Agor, he knows himself better than that. He knows he can't handle it. And I wonder how many of us would be willing to pray with this and along with this, Lord, give me in my life exactly what I need. If I need trials, Lord, give me trials. If I need a time of rest, Lord, please give me a time of rest. But Lord, please give me exactly what I need so that I would become a more true worshipper of you. You see what his focus is here. He's praying, Lord, give me exactly what I need. Lead me on the path that turns my eyes more and more to you. Don't give me what I want, Lord. Give me exactly what I need. Arrange my life so I would know you better and love you more. Is that your main prayer for the things of this life? Lord, shepherd me in a way where I love you more and more is your greatest desire to honor the Lord God. I think that our prayers are often the best barometer or thermometer of our spiritual life. The way that we pray or don't pray, perhaps we slipped into not praying enough. It's really a barometer. It's an instrument that shows where our spiritual life is. And here we have a little view into a prayer of a truly humbled wise man. Let's be praying that we would pray more like Edgar. Well, that's the main theme of this chapter. It's really about a humble believer. He's looked at creation, he's read the Word of God, and it's humbled him. And he's found hope in the Lord's salvation, that the Lord is his shield. He's found hope in knowing the Son of God and being a true worshiper. And the call is, if this is not the pattern in the prayer of your life, repent, turn, believe. in the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants his whole life arranged so he remains a faithful worshipper, a true worshipper of the Lord. But in the middle of those reflections, and that's the main theme of the chapter, humble man wanting to stay near to the Lord. But there's also much wisdom here about human nature. Look at that secondly. If we could sum up his observations, the first nine verses, we've already seen something about human nature. The main theme is there in those first nine verses, don't trust yourself, don't think too much of yourself, you must be humbled to know the Lord. But then in verse 10 and following, he moves to a number of practical calls and practical rebukes that remind us to be careful, pure, cautious believers. First proverb, it's a reminder, be careful with accusations. much like the rest of Proverbs, he's really concerned, or one of his main concerns is about what comes out of our mouth. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And the rest of the chapter does visit again and again, what kind of things do we say and how do we speak? But here he reminds us, be very careful with accusations. Be very careful with looking down on others. And it's not a coincidence that he starts with slaves or servants. In that ancient culture, slaves or servants were nothing. The conventional person, they would look at this verse and they would say, well, what's the big deal? Who cares what you say about a slave or a servant? As if that matters. It's just a slave or a servant. You can say bad things about a servant and nobody will remember that. You can say whatever you want about a servant. But you see, Agar, he starts with the bottom of society and he says, be very careful about how you relate to the servants and to the slaves. Agur is saying, be careful, the effect is don't even gossip about the humblest people in your society. Don't slander, that's what that word means, slander or gossip, don't malign. Don't slander the lowest members of society, it very well may come back to you. And behind this proverb, we see Agur truly was humbled. He didn't think himself better than a slave. You know, sometimes it happens. this to us even in our life. Probably not with servants, but maybe with children. Children repeat what adults say. Sometimes our children, they can be like a mirror. They can remind us of some of the foolish things that we've said, and it comes back to get us. I'm reminded, be very careful about maligning or speaking about little ones or servants or the small people in this world. You see, that's his first application. Be careful how you treat the little people, the smallest people. It's a warning, the truth will come out. Edgar, he's very cautious about honesty. He wants every word to be true, even the inconsequential ones. And now he moves through that same theme into more and more horizontal relationships. Verses 10 through 14, he shows how pride really eats into a culture and a society. the same pride that causes people to forget God and to fail to bow to Him, it now works its way into the culture and into the relationships. So when people are not agar-like, if they're not humbled, They end up cursing their masters, and children curse their fathers, and they don't bless their mothers, and motherhood is looked down on, as it is in our society. It's despised. And all the while, they think they're wonderful, good people. They're proud. They cut into each other. If you look at these verses, this would be a culture with a bullying problem. And that's exactly what we have in our culture. They're cutting into each other. They're mocking each other, there's sarcasm, there's these cutting words, and they walk all over the needy. Sadly, this observation, it describes our generation to a T. Pride is no longer a sin. We're told to think much of yourself and be proud of yourself is a virtue. Fathers and mothers are seen pretty much as optional in our society. The village can bring up your child. You don't need fathers and mothers anymore. Self is the greatest authority. You'll do just fine. on your own. Now, it's easy to see this in the generation around us, but we need to examine our own hearts also. Are we perhaps quick to accuse? How do we treat our own parents? The commandment, honor your father and your mother, that extends into adulthood. Do we look down on our parents? Do we slip into thinking, well, back in the 70s, they were much worse than we are, or something along those lines, how they did things. Do you think you're better than others? Do our words cut into others? Do we devour or do we build up? Do our words reveal that we are a proud generation? Even in more important in the middle, the greatest question, verse 12, are you washed from your filthiness? Have you seen the state of your heart? You see again here, Edgar, he was a prideful man and he saw that our words, they often expose our pride and they show us You can't cleanse yourself. You need the fountain that is the Lord Jesus Christ. You need the cross of Jesus Christ. And the call of the gospel is, admit your impurity, admit your filthiness, confess with agor your foolishness, go to the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy and for grace. Pray for the work of the Holy Spirit. It's either trusting Christ that leads through repentance and faith, or it's this never-ending emptiness and this hunger for sin that Agar exposes. As you go through the next verses, Agar on the one hand, he looks at creation and he marvels And then he contrasts this with the hunger of a sinful heart over and over, the self-deception of those that are living in sin. And he shows how many people, they deny the realities of what they're doing, their own hunger for vanity. But in the end, it's pride and the thoughts of the heart that he's concerned with. We won't go through those last Proverbs or that section of individual Proverbs. They're much like the ones we've already looked at. But the point is, you're either humbled or you're proud. And in the end, it's pride that he's concerned about. Verse 32, if you've been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth. For as the churning of milk produces butter and the wringing of the nose produces blood, so the forcing of wrath produces strife." Now that conclusion, to his words, it might seem a little obscure. He uses illustrations we wouldn't use. But he's saying, in a nutshell, pride destroys. Pride destroys. And the way it destroys is often through the words of our mouths, the way that we speak to others, the way that we interact. And as we speak, he's warning us that our pride can be like churning the butter and causing a nosebleed, the words that we speak. And it ends here by showing that pride and selfishness, they stir the pot and they lead to injuries and to strife and to chaos. I've been thinking about this as you look at the world around us. You see this sort of tribalism emerging. That's what a lot of social commentators would say. The way our world is going is a sort of tribalism. You have this special interest group here and this one here, and you have states and provinces and countries speaking about dividing. It's happening in Europe, it's happening here. There's this emergence of tribalism. And basically what tribalism says is, my people are better than your people. We're distinct, we're special, and we look down on you. And we're foolish and exalting ourselves if we do that. We begin to devise evil and there's destruction and there's hatred for neighbors. And we need to think about Agar's warnings here. It all comes down to pride and humility. The question should be, is your life about self-promotion? Is your marriage relationship perhaps even about self-promotion? All about you, all about me, exalting yourself, devising evil. Is your parenting about self-promotion? Is it about getting more for me? Is life about being healthy and wealthy or all about self-promotion? Getting more for yourself, being healthy and wealthy, or one way or another, getting your own way, exalting yourself. Well, if that's the case, there'll be strife to pay. There will be divorce and fracturing of society. There will be brokenness in relationships. The family will break down. There will be pain and there will be sadness. And so if we could sum up what Agar's profound view of creation, the human heart and of God teaches us, it teaches us to speak less, to confess I'm fragile, I'm foolish, I'm prone to forget, and even to go so far as to confess I am stupid, a poor, and a needy sinner. Is this your confession? Are you willing to be a fool for the Lord Jesus Christ? The call is come, repent, believe in him. Amen.