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I want to turn to Proverbs chapter
30 and also we're going to be reading from Proverbs chapter
6 a little bit later. But I want to turn to Proverbs
chapter 30 and I trust the Lord to just encourage our hearts
as we read a few verses. Proverbs is a tremendous book. It's a book of wisdom and when
I became a Christian When I was newly converted, I remember my
dear friend Tom Tice saying, you know, you should read a proverb
that corresponds with the day of the month. And so you can
read, you know, today is what? The 11th, so read Proverbs 11. Now, I'm not on that reading
plan. at this moment, but I've done it in times past and I have
found it to be very beneficial, to be very helpful. We know that
these are pithy statements and they are full of wisdom and good
food for our souls. And so I would encourage you,
if you've never made it a point to go through the book of Proverbs,
to go through them and to read them and to be encouraged by
them. Tonight, we're just going to
look at a few verses. I wish I could look at more verses
or read more, but I think for sake of time, we're just going
to read a few verses beginning in verse 24, and we're going
to read down through verse 28. And so Proverbs chapter 30, beginning in the verse 24. And again, trust the Lord to
bless these thoughts to our heart. There be four things which are
little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise. Or if you have a reading in your
margin, they are wise made wise. Verse 25 says the ants are a
people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer. The conies are but a feeble folk,
yet make their houses in the rocks. The locusts have no king,
yet go they forth, all of them, by band. And then lastly here, verse 28,
"...the spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in king's palaces."
Amen. I trust the Lord to bless these
thoughts, these words, for his own namesake. Let us briefly
once again ask the Lord to come and to help us and to help me
specifically and in helping me to communicate and to communicate
well, to communicate clearly. And I pray that I will be able
to share with you what the Lord has put upon my heart. Let's
all pray. Our Heavenly Father, once again
we are so thankful that we can call upon thy name. Lord, we
are your children, and we come crying unto thee, Abba, Father. Lord, we think of the text of
Scripture concerning earthly fathers, and how they do give
to their children, and how much more shall our Father in Heaven
give the Holy Ghost to them that ask. We come, Lord, asking for
the promised Holy Spirit. Lord, we're asking that the Spirit
of God come and take these words and apply them to our hearts.
Lord, we're thankful that we're handling a book that is quick
and powerful. That it's not a dead letter,
it's a living epistle. And it can speak to the heart.
Lord, I pray that You will come and empower me Lord, that You'll
use me. Lord, that You'll simply make
me a channel of blessing to the people of God here this evening. Lord, we rejoice that we have
this Word of God in our own mother tongue. That we can read it,
that we can understand it, that we can be blessed by it. And
so help us, we pray, Lord, as we come to this chapter, as we
come to these verses in the book of Proverbs. Lord, do our hearts
good, we ask. And so we do pray, help us to
go forward in Thy strength. in Thy power, again pleading
the blood of Christ over this gathering, over our sin, over
our flesh, and over our weakness, we pray in Jesus' name and for
Jesus' sake. Amen. Amen. On the sixth day,
God created man in His own image. In the image of God created He
Him. male and female. They were created for the purpose
to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish the earth, and to
even subdue it. They were to be wiser and to
have dominion over the water and the land creatures. They
were to have dominion and to be wiser over the creeping things
and the cattle that were created both on the fifth. and the six
days of creation. Now, I'm not ashamed to confess
that I believe in literal days of creation. I take that account
literally. And I am sorry, and I say that,
well, it just is amazing to think and to believe and to hear that
there are people who call themselves Christian, who don't take the
first chapter of the book of Genesis to be literal. Now, I
say that all by the way. But back to what I want to talk
about. Now, male and female, they were
created in the image of God. They were given that authority. They were to have the dominion. They were to be wiser over the
creation. Over the creeping things. The
cattle and the things that were created in the
sea as well. But sadly, you know as well as
I do, because of the sin of Adam especially, they fell. and their wisdom turned into
foolishness. And sadly, they are in many respects
to learn now from the creation itself. You know, we can learn
valuable lessons, I believe, even now, as the children of
God. We can learn valuable lessons
from God that we should never, ever forget. This evening, I
want to share with you some good instruction from four small creatures
that God said were very wise. And so tonight I want to consider
with you tiny creatures and big lessons. And so let's take a
look at the first remarkable creature God made in order to
teach us. We read here four tiny creatures
in Proverbs chapter 30, beginning in the verse 25. And the first one that I want
to begin looking at here this evening is the ant. We've all seen ants, I'm sure. And we know that they range really
in a variety of sizes. They have colonies. You know,
I have ants in my backyard that I don't dare kill because I was
told that ants like to eat termites. And I have termites, and I'm
glad that the ant eats the termite. We've seen all sorts of ants,
and it's not my desire here tonight, I'm no naturalist, to get into
a study about the ant and to talk about its morphology and
all its parts and how it lives from day to day. But nonetheless,
we can learn some very good lessons from the ant here this evening
just on a surface glance. You know, believe it or not,
they do have colonies, and they have really colonized ants, that
is, have colonized every land mass on the earth. That's quite amazing. Except
for Antarctica and a few remote islands, every land mass you
see on this globe, or every land mass that is on the globe, I
don't think we've seen it all except by looking at a globe,
has an ant. Some type of an ant. This is just simply a fun fact. There are 20 quadrillion ants on the earth. And so when you break that number
down, really, there are 2.5 million ants per person. That's a lot of ants. That's quite amazing. And I guess
that explains why they are an invasive species. But nonetheless,
we come to our Bible, we read our Bibles, and we have to ask
the question, why did, why does the Lord write certain things? Why did He reference the ant
for our reading? We know that the Word of God,
it's quick, it's powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.
As John 11 states, we are sanctified by its truth. And so, the Word
of God is very important for our well-being. It's for our
nourishment in the things of the Lord. And so God has provided
us a sermon in the ant. Now, I suppose we can go on all
night and talk about the ant, but that's not my desire, but
I will mention a few things about the ant. You know, what is it
about the ant that the Lord is really trying to teach us? Now,
we find reference to the ant in Proverbs chapter 30, and we
also find reference to the ant in Proverbs chapter 6. There
are specific characteristics that are highlighted, and we'll
turn to Proverbs chapter 6 here in a moment. But the first thing
I want to point out is that the ant really is self-motivating. You know, it has been observed
that there are different classes in any given anthill. And, you know, there's the queen,
there's the worker, and there are the drone ants. And again,
each of them take the initiative to do their own work. And I find
it rather interesting that they don't have a taskmaster. They don't have, you know, one
like the children of Israel had that we read there in Exodus
chapter 5, telling them to fulfill their work. Nor do they have
officers that we read of in Solomon's day that ruled over the people
that wrought in the work. No, simply put, you don't need
to tell an ant what to do. They just know what to do, and
they do it with all of their being. They're self-motivating. The second thing to point out
is that they know how to prepare. Not only do they take the initiative
to do the work that they need to do, and they do their own
work and they do it well, but they know how to prepare in their
work. Let's turn over to Proverbs chapter
6. Proverbs chapter 6 and beginning
there in Verse 6, Go to the aunt thou sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise,
which having no guide, no overseer, no ruler, provideth her meat
in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest." They know how to prepare. They
know how to be diligent in their work to get things done, to have
what they need to have for the season of life. But another thing
to mention is that ants, as I've already said, you know, they
prepare, but they're diligent. They're very hard-working creature. You know, when I was studying,
we had a fella and the Morrows had a chance to meet John Woods
over in Northern Ireland. And we used to say that John
Woods was indefatigable or indefatigable. He was like a machine. He was
like a robot in some respects. He just got the work done. And
interestingly, the aunt himself or Well, the ant. You know, they don't get tired.
Even though they are weak, seemingly, from our perspective, they don't
get tired. And, yes, they're small, nonetheless. You know, God says they are wise
really because they're not lazy. You know, they give all their
attention and all their effort to building the colony and caring
for its survival. Now you may be asking, well,
why are you talking about the ant? Well, there's some very
good application for the people of God. There are two references
about the ant, and we looked at both of them there in the
Old Testament. And Proverbs 6 really gives us
the primary reason why God mentions the ant. He says, Go to the ant,
thou sluggard. Go to the ant thou sluggard,
and consider her ways." You know, as I thought about that, you
know, you can't help but to think, like the ant, we should learn
how to prepare ourselves before the Lord and for every season
that the Lord has created and has established. You know, there
are some people, and I will put myself in this, there are some
people, saint and even a sinner alike, who do not think to prepare
themselves for eternity. You know, it just comes to me,
the prophet Amos, when he says, prepare to meet thy God. You know, there is for both the
saint and the sinner alike, the urgency, the needfulness to prepare
to come before God. You know, both can be described
as the sluggard. There are saints, and there are
sinners alike. Whether it's in the physical
or in the spiritual realm. who fit this description. In the natural or the physical
realm, the sluggard really, when you think of him or her, is only
concerned or provides for, and I wrote it down this way, the
in-the-moment living. They really live for just the
now. For the present. There really
is no thought or planning for the future. For down the road. And I've shared this quote with
you from Proverbs 13 and verse 4. And just recently, it says
that the soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing. but the soul of the diligent
shall be made fat. Let's turn to a few references,
please. First of all, to Proverbs 20. And verse 4. It says there concerning the sluggard,
the sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold. Therefore shall he beg in harvest,
and have nothing. Turn to Proverbs 21, just a few
verses away, in verse 25. The desire of the slothful killeth
him, for his hands refuse to labor. And then turning over
to chapter 24, and verses 33-34, it says, Yet a little sleep, a little
slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall
thy poverty come, as one that travaileth. and that want as
an armed man. You know, as I was thinking of
the sluggard, I think in many respects, they take the Word
of God out of context. And what I mean by that is that
you read there in Matthew 6, and the verse 34, so I don't
misquote it, But Matthew 6, verse 34 states,
as our Lord was speaking, Take therefore no thought for
the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the
evil thereof. And so in many respects, there
is no worrying about the morrow or the future for the sluggard. Oh, because I don't know what
is on the morrow, why should I then plan for it? Why should
I then prepare for it? Is their thinking. But when we
consider spiritually speaking, You know, when we look at the
sluggard, there are sluggards who are sleeping away, as it
were, the opportunities of the grace of God in their lives. In many respects, and it's come
to me in Hebrews 5, as I was sitting up here, and the verse
12. You think of those Christians
specifically. You know, they're sleeping, as
it were, their Christian life away. And they're not making
any diligence to pursue the things of the Lord, to pursue the graces
of God that have been afforded to them. And what an indictment
we read in v. 12 of chapter 5. It says, for
when the time ye ought to be teachers, oh, the Christian,
the sluggard, Oh, you should be at a stage in your life where
you're mature, where you're fully grown, or there close to it. Able to teach, able to share,
able to lead others. But because of your slothfulness,
your laziness, because of your idleness and your sleepiness,
Oh you, it says, for when the time ye ought to be teachers,
ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles
of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk,
and not of strong meat. Oh you should be chewing on the
meat of the Word, but because again of the indolence, oh you're
still stuck drinking the milk. You're not mature. You're not
where you should be in the things of the Lord. But then you think
of also in the spiritual realm of the sinner. And there are
sinners who do not take the opportunities that are given to them to call
upon the Lord, to be saved, to trust in Him. You know, I like
what was said years ago, and it wasn't coined with me, but
I have kept it and I enjoy it. There's only one time to be saved. for the sinner. Paul told the
Corinthians, behold now is the acceptable time. Behold now is
the day of salvation. And how often do we come in contact
with those who are dead in trespasses and in sins? We know that they
are blinded to the things of the Gospel, that the God of this
world has darkened their understanding. We plead with them, we tell them,
today you must call upon the name of the Lord. You don't know
what a day will bring forth. Oh, it may be that the Lord will
call you into His presence, and He will say at that time, depart
from Me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels. We plead with them and we say,
you need to come to Christ, but how many sinners, how many people
do we come in contact who just put it off? Oh, I'm not going
to worry about it today. I'm too busy living my life. I'm too busy living my life for
me. I had the opportunity this past
week and and I've been praying about it. And I'm so thankful
that the Lord gave me this opportunity as I've shared with some of you.
You know I come across some pretty well the Bible says that we'll
always have the poor among you. We'll never get rid of the poor.
And there are people that I come in contact with who are, in my
estimation, more than poor. They're homeless. They're strung
out on drugs. They're in a bad, bad way. And nonetheless, my heart goes
out for them. And I pray for them. And as I see them, it just breaks
my heart. And I had an opportunity when
I was on the other end, the east end of Indian School this past
week. I had to tell a gentleman that
he needed to move so I can work on the machine. And he was very
compliant. He was no problem. He was just
standing near the machine just so he can kind of feel a little
bit of the air conditioning. It was a hot day. He found our
receptacle, and so he had plugged his phone in, and he was charging
his phone. And I had the opportunity to
talk with him, and we just, you know, were talking and chatting
for a few minutes. And, you know, I thought, you
know, I'm just going to tell him about the Lord. And I had
an opportunity to share with him the gospel. And I shared
with him that he needed to call upon the Lord. That he needed
to trust in the Lord for his salvation. That the Lord can,
as Dr. Paisley so aptly put it, he can
save from the guttermost to the uttermost. And I shared with
him that the Lord can make you clean. Oh, he was strung out
on drugs. Yes, he was in somewhat of a
right mind. He said that he only did so much
of a certain drug. He looked like he was newly on
the street. His clothes were pretty decently
worn. They weren't totally worn out.
His bag was in good condition. And he said that he had just
come up from Tucson. just about a week or two prior.
And we got the chatting, and again, I was sharing with him
that you need the Lord. And he says, God has my back. And I said, no, if you're not
a child of God, you're under God's judgment and wrath. And
I pleaded with him, you know, that he needed to call upon the
Lord to be saved. And, you know, and in a flash,
I also gave him a bag of ice. A cup of cold water, the scripture
says, right, in the Savior's name. And I wanted to show him
that I was sincere and genuine, not just for his spiritual well-being,
but for his physical well-being. But it just came to me, and I
thought, you know, this man truly is a sluggard. He was given an
opportunity. He was given the opportunity
to call upon the Lord and be saved. And he refused the grace
of God. He rejected the salvation of
Christ at that moment. You know, I left there and I
thought, I pray that the Lord will save him. That the Lord
will somehow echo or re-echo those words in his heart and
in his mind that he needed to be saved. And then I trust that
someone else, you know, the Bible says one man plants and another
man waters, but God giveth the increase. And so I trust that
the Lord will do a gracious work in him. But we are to consider
the ant. Go to the ant, thou sluggard. You know, the ant teaches us
that we should work hard for our spiritual food. You know,
I've learned and I'm learning that, you know, we are to dig.
We're to do as what, you know, our teachers tell us, especially
in seminary, that we're to do the spade work. That we're to
do the digging. even the child of God, that we're
to read our Scriptures, that we're not just to read a verse
for a week, but that we're to read the Scriptures on a systematic
basis. To hide the Word within our hearts
that we might not sin against the Lord. We're to find ourselves
in all the means of grace that God has afforded to us. To take
full advantage of them. So we may grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord. You know, God forbid that we
become anemic in spiritual things. But let us not be like the sluggard. Let us work diligently. Let us
work hard for our spiritual food. You know, we are to work for
the meat. as John 6 and 27 says, that endureth unto everlasting
life. Let's move on now quickly to
the second creature that is found in Proverbs 30, and that is the
coney. The coney. What is the coney? Have you ever seen a coney? Have you ever petted a coney?
Have you ever gone to the zoo and, you know, noticed a coney
on display? What is a coney? A coney could be described as
a rock badger or really a rock rabbit. Some call it the hyrax. I've never seen one up close
and personal. They look somewhat like an overgrown
guinea pig. The word, the Hebrew word, shifon,
suggests that this animal is inclined to go into hiding. Now, like the ant, the Cones
prepare themselves as well, but not in the same way the ants
do. They prepare themselves from
danger. You know, they build their houses
in rocks. We read in v. 26 of chapter 30,
the Cones are but a feeble folk yet make they their houses in
the rocks." You know, though they lack strength, because they're
a very weak creature at best, they make up for it with their
wisdom. And again, that's why Solomon
writes, they are exceeding wise. You know, in many respects, the
Koni, you know, they work smarter not harder. And really that is
the secret of their wisdom. They do so because of their feebleness. They're a very feeble folk, the
Word of God states. Conies, these animals, these
little creatures, really they're an easy target for predators. You think of the birds, the birds
of prey, and they're constantly flying above the rocks, circling
for food, looking for something to eat. You know, they fly high
above, so high, unbeknownst to creatures, and they're scanning,
they're spotting easy prey to snatch up unexpectedly. You know, predators that lurk
on the rocky hillside look for conies, look for these little
creatures that are really careless. You know, some of these animals,
they come out of hiding and they go just a little too far from
their habitation. They get a little too comfortable
away from home, as it were, from that place of security, from
that rock, that they live in and they become a victim. They
become prey to the predator. And again, as I was thinking
of the Coney, you know, we must remember, you know, as the people
of God that we are vulnerable, that we are a vulnerable prey
to the devil. You know, the Bible says that
He is a roaring lion who walks about seeking whom He may devour. You know, He's looking for opportunities. He's looking for our weaknesses. He's looking for our feebleness
to take advantage of and to consume us. You know, I think it's very
important, you know, and I tell my children and I tell myself,
you know, as we traverse this sinful world, as we are walking
through this wicked world, that we have to keep our heads on
a swivel. We can't keep them buried, as
it were, in the ground like an ostrich. The Bible makes that
very clear that we are to walk circumspectly. And again, to
illustrate, when I go to some of these machines, you know,
I'm constantly scanning around because I'm handling a lot of
money. And I don't want it to be taken
by surprise. And that's how it is with the
child of God while we live. You know, the devil himself,
he's seeking to consume us. He's seeking to spoil us. He's
seeking to destroy us. Proverbs 22, verse 3 says, A
prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself, but the simple
pass on and are punished. You know, in conjunction with
what we have already learned from the ant, you know, we need
to be careful of being spiritually weak. You know, our Lord says, watch
and pray. lest ye enter into temptation."
And again, to just piggyback on what I said a little bit earlier,
we are the weakest. We're probably the most vulnerable
when we have not been praying, when we have not been seeking
the Lord, when we have not been reading our Bibles, when we have
not been availing ourselves in the means of grace, when we have
not been building up ourselves in our most holy faith. They're wise, yes, and they take
advantage of their feebleness. But we find that these Kones
are wise because of their fortress. They make their houses in the
rocks. You know, I find it rather interesting
that they don't build anything themselves. They take advantage
of what's already been built, what's already around them. They
don't build from scratch. They make their way into the
crevices and into the holes of the rocks. Somewhere in the rocks
they make a den and they have a little safe haven to raise
their families and to live. They're out of harm's way. Nothing
can reach them as they're far into the rocks. You know, the
rocks are their fortress. You know, again, Konies teach
us a very valuable lesson concerning safety and finding safe refuge
for the child of God. They teach us the necessity of
having a fortress, something that is unpenetrable. You know, I think of two references
in relation to our fortress. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He is our rock. He is our fortress. He is our
spiritual fortress from spiritual foes. He's our refuge in the
time of storm. As Deuteronomy 32 and verse 4
states, He is the rock. His work is perfect, for all
His ways are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity,
just and right is He. You read there in 1 Corinthians
10 and verse 4, you remember what followed the children of
Israel as they traversed the wilderness. It was the rock Christ
Jesus. He is our rock. He is our hiding
place. And so we must, you know, learn
from the Coney. Yes, we're a feeble folk. And
we must have a fortress that is greater than ourselves. We
must have the Rock Christ Jesus as our fortress, as our high
tower, as our refuge. Now to the third thing that I
want to point out, and that's the locusts. The locusts. It says, the locusts have no
king, yet go they forth, all of them, by bands. They swarm
or they go about in a group, forth, all by bands. Again, you read in Proverbs 6,
really in reference to the ant, but it's also in reference to
the locust. They have really no leader. They
have no office bearer. They have no guide. And yet,
they swarm about with precision and discipline. They guide themselves
as a whole. They're orderly. The locusts
are an amazing creature. The prophet Joel, he spoke of
them, and we're not going to turn to that passage, but he
spoke of them in chapter 2, v. 7 and in v. 8. And he referenced
them as a well-ordered army. as it were men of war, marching
every one on his ways, not entangling their ranks, not getting confused
one with the other, but walking every one in his path." If you
read the Septuagint, it says that the locusts are without
a king, yet march at one command in good order. You know, these insects teach
us really a number of things as well. They teach us the importance
of unity and unanimous movement. You know, the locusts did not
take a course of their own. You don't find one swarm going
this way and then, you know, some going in another direction.
They all work together. They all go together. You know,
how often do we come in contact with Christians, with those who
know the Lord, who profess to walk with the Lord, and yet at
times they take to themselves an individual course from everybody
and everything else in Christianity. They don't belong to any organization. to a denomination. They're under
no discipline. They're under no direction. They
march to the beat of their own drum. We've seen Christians like
that. Locusts teach us, really for
the child of God, how we are to behave, especially how we're
to behave ourselves in church and as a body of believers. Though a church is made up of
individuals, and we know that to be true, yet everyone is part
of a group. We must fly together. We must
work together in one united cause. And as I was thinking of this,
you can't help but to think of Psalm 131 and the verse 1. You know, the psalmist writes,
Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. You know, there's a Puritan saying,
and I like the Puritans. I'm not like some guys out there
who are just so, you know, immersed in the Puritans, but I love the
Puritans. And there is a Puritan saying
which says, there are some things that are good and not pleasant. And there are things pleasant
and not good. But there is one thing good and
pleasant, and that is for brethren to dwell together in unity." It was aptly put, unity and not
diversity brings the good thing of the heart established with
grace. We find that reference there
in Hebrews 13. You know, the strength of any
given church that is seeking to promote the Lord Jesus Christ
and His Gospel is not an army of irregular or undisciplined
and even disorderly soldiers that are not connected with one
another. Rather, to use the words of the
proverb, it is better that a church go forth, all of them by bands. It is good when the church is
united, when the church is concentrated, coming together, as it were,
and being disciplined, working together, helping each other,
while keeping their rank. Not, as it were, stepping out
of line. You know, we know that that is
biblical. You read there in Numbers chapter 2, and you know, when
I heard of the passing of Dr. Douglas, my heart quickly went
to my studies in Numbers. When I was studying there in
Northern Ireland, Dr. Douglas took us through the book
of Numbers. And it seemed like, you know,
we were reliving what the children of Israel went through. You know,
we were just traversing the wilderness. And it was a wonderful study.
You read there in chapter 2 of the book of Numbers, and you
can go there and find it yourself, there was an order to the children
of Israel in their marching and especially in their camping. You know, we've seen pictures
of the tabernacle and of all the tribes encamped around about. It was decent and in order. And so the children of God, we're
to be united, we're to work together, we're to help each other, and
we're to keep our rank. You know, it's been said, the
Lord heal our unhappy divisions, unite our energies in one holy
bond of truth and peace of faith and charity. And now lastly,
the spider. Now, I'm going to take the spider
to be the spider. And there are a lot of commentators
who would even reference this to be a lizard. But I'm going
to reference it as a spider. The spider taketh hold with her
hands. We know that certain lizards
do, especially the gecko. but taketh hold with her hands,
and is in kings' palaces." You know, growing up, my mom, and
I think I've said this before, she was so deathly afraid of
spiders that she went out and got a tarantula. You know, we,
my dad had built this terrarium and it was excellent. And she
brought this Mexican tarantula home and she dumped it in the,
and I'll give her credit for doing just that, you know, having
a fear of spiders. She dumped this tarantula in
this, you know, enclosure. And, you know, she was deathly
afraid of spiders. You know, we had it, we'd look
at it, we'd try to hold it. And I remember probably after
the first day we had it, we had a towel or a sheet over it the
whole time. my mom just did not want to see
the spider. She had really a real fear of
spiders. Now the spider that I think what
is being referenced here is not the tarantula, but though the
tarantula kind of spins a type of web, You know, spiders do,
they spin their webs and they have this ability and it has,
you know, it's beautiful, these webs. They spin them with great
skill and they're very diligent in their web building. It's a miracle. to look at certain
webs. Now, by the way, if you see a
web and it's not systematic and it's not, you know, really just
symmetrical, that's a black widow. Don't get your hands near it. The spider. Yet, strangely enough,
you know, a spider's web is very capable. Yeah, it's small. It's very capable of catching
bigger bugs than itself. And yet at the same time, it
is fragile. You can't stand on a spider web,
it won't hold you up. You read there in... Job chapter
8 verses 13 and verses 13 to 14, it says, the hypocrites whose
hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be like the spider's
web. You know, what an interesting
contrast in verse 28 we read here. When you think of the job
of the spider, Really, it is simple and yet it's humble work. But what is fascinating is where
the spider's work can lead them. And it's pointed out here that
the spider taketh hold with her hands and is in, they don't say,
you know, a tent or some mean place. They say a spider's web
can be found in king's palaces. You know, a spider's web can
be found in the White House. In places of great reputation
and of great esteem. What a contrast is being pointed
out here. You know, it says, her hands
take hold in king's palaces. You know, as I was thinking about
that, what we can take home here tonight from the spider is how
to be diligent in our work. You know, the Bible says, "...whatsoever
thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might, because there
is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither
thou goest." You know, as I referenced the verse, "...the soul of the
sluggard desireth, and hath nothing." But we know that diligence is
rewarded. Proverbs 22 and verse 29, it
says, Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand
before kings. You know, I referenced this morning
Joseph. And he was a man who was diligent
in his business. I referenced, you know, he was
diligent in his witness, in his work, and in his words. And he
was, you know, looked upon and seen to be a man who was, you
know, earnest in what he did and what he said and how he approached
things. And he was elevated. You know, God has provided these
little creatures, and we're going to close here, to teach us some
very important lessons. that we should not forget. You know, I think we would all
do well to heed the words of Zechariah 4, verse 10, that we're
not to despise the day of small things. You know, it's been said
well that let us not be too proud to learn or too careless to attend
to the humbling but most valuable lesson taught in this school
of instruction. Again, to quote the proverb,
chapter 1 and the verse 5, a wise man will hear and will increase
in learning. There be four things which are
little upon the earth. but they are exceeding wise. The Lord calls us to be wise. The Lord calls us to consider
these four creatures and to apply them diligently, the lessons
they give to our own lives for his own namesake. Amen. I trust the Lord to bless
this study, these devotional thoughts to our own hearts.
Tiny Creatures and Big Lessons
| Sermon ID | 814241554516920 |
| Duration | 54:20 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Proverbs 30:24-28 |
| Language | English |
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