PROVERBS 30

PROVERBS 30WORDS OF AGUR

• Agur: don’t know who he is• 30:1-9

–Agur’s confessions concerning his emotions and his relationship to God

• 30:10-33–Agur’s observatons about

nature and people

PROVERBS 30:1TIRED

• The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle. The man declares, I am weary, O God; I am weary, O God, and worn out.

• “Lord, it is so hard down here.”

• He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3

PROVERBS 30:2-3HUMBLE CONFESSION

• Surely I am too stupid to be a man. I have not the understanding of a man. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.

• And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Isaiah 6:5

• The closer you are to the One Holy Triune God, the more aware you are of how far away you are, and all pride vanishes.

PROVERBS 30:4QUESTIONS TO HUMBLE

• Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name? Surely you know!

• Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? Job 40:6-9

• PRIDE IS EVIL AND STUPID!

PROVERBS 30:5GOD’S WORD IS TRUE

• Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

• The Scriptures, God’s special revelation, are inerrant, infallible, sufficient, complete, universal, propositional, eternal, and are our unequaled verbal final authority.

• All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16

PROVERBS 30:6GOD’S WORD ONLY

• Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

• Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” Romans 3:4

• God’s Word is true and complete even if everyone on earth said otherwise.

• Do you know it, believe it and live it?

WORLDVIEWSDETERMINE HOW YOU LIVE• WHAT IS REAL? (Metaphysics)

– Prime Reality– Universe– People– History

• WHAT IS TRUTH? (Epistemology)– Prerequisites for knowledge– How do you know what you know?

• WHAT IS RIGHT & WRONG? (Ethics)– Universal moral values and duties– Where do they come from?– Are you accountable for how you live?

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW IS TRUEHOW DO YOU KNOW?

• Scripture says so: your basic presupposition• It is reasonable

– Cosmological argument– Design argument

• There is evidence for it– The Bible– Jesus is God and man– The Resurrection

• Born again: your personal experience• It must be true or you could not know anything.

– Reasoning requires laws of logic– Science requires uniformity of nature– Moral values & duties requires a moral standard

Creator – creation DistinctionFor by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17

One Triune Creator Personal Sovereign GodIndependent Infinite Authority

REVELATION

CreationDependent Finite Submissive

PROVERBS 30:7-9PROPER RESPONSE: PRAYER

• Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

• What do you want?

• So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

PROVERBS 30:10DON’T SLANDER

• Do not slander a servant to his master, lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

• Slander: oral defamation, in which someone tells one or more persons an untruth about another which untruth will harm the reputation of the person defamed.

• Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Ephesians 4:31

• God’s Word: live it?

PROVERBS 30:11-144 EXAMPLES OF DEPRAVITY

• There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers. There are those who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth. There are those—how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift! There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind.

• Disrespectful, ungrateful, self-deceived, arrogant, mean…except for God’s grace…

PROVERBS 30:15-16GREED: NEVER ENOUGH!

• The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough”: Sheol, the barren womb, the land never satisfied with water, and the fire that never says, “Enough.”

• How much is enough?• What would satisfy you?• “God is most glorified in us when we are most

satisfied in Him.” John Piper• Now there is great gain in godliness with

contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 1 Timothy 6:6-7

PROVERBS 30:17PARENTS & CHILDREN

• The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.

• “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12

• Parents represent the One Holy Triune God

• What are your children’s first impression of God?

PROVERBS 30:18-194 AMAZING THINGS

• Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin.

• And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Genesis 1:31

• This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

PROVERBS 30:20AMAZING SINFULNESS

• This is the way of an adulteress: she eats and wipes her mouth and says, “I have done no wrong.”

• For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth… they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Romans 1:18, 32

• What sin do you deny is sin?

PROVERBS 30:21-23THINGS NOT CONSISTENT

• Under three things the earth trembles; under four it cannot bear up: a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when he is filled with food; an unloved woman when she gets a husband, and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.

• Inconsistency is wrong

• Actions speak louder than words!

PROVERBS 30:24-28LEARN FROM EVERYTHING• Four things on earth are small, but they

are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their food in the summer; the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs; the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank; the lizard you can take in your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces.

• Are you teachable?

PROVERBS 30:29-31GOD MAKES LEADERS• Three things are stately in their tread; four

are stately in their stride: the lion, which is mightiest among beasts and does not turn back before any; the strutting rooster, the he-goat, and a king whose army is with him.

• Who gets credit for your successes?

• giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 5:20

PROVERBS 30:32-33A WARNING• If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,

or if you have been devising evil, put your hand on your mouth. For pressing milk produces curds, pressing the nose produces blood, and pressing anger produces strife.

• If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9