Confession, Catechism, and Proclamation - John Mathis

Good evening brothers and sisters. What a great honor indeed it is to open

God's Word to you tonight. I would direct your attention to the book of Proverbs chapter 30.

Proverbs chapter 30. We will be looking at verses 1 through 6 in Proverbs chapter 30.

And if you would stand please for the reading of God's Holy Word. This is the

Word of our God. The words of Agur, the son of Jacob, the

Oracle. The man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ukal.

Surely I am more senseless than any man and I do not have the understanding of mankind.

Neither have I learned wisdom nor do I know the knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended into heaven and descended?

Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped the waters in his garment?

Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name and what is his son's name?

Surely you know. Every word of God is tested.

He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words lest he reprove you and you be proved a liar.

Thus far the reading of God's holy, inspired, infallible, and all -sufficient Word. Please be seated.

Brothers and sisters, we live in a time and in a culture that glories in its ignorance.

Eminent scientists of our day have declared we no longer need the

God hypothesis. Some of you know that I love theoretical physics and I try to keep up with recent discoveries and debates.

Sean Carroll, an American physicist and natural philosopher and professor of theoretical physics at California Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University, whose textbook on Einstein's theory of gravity

I own and is used in universities around the world, recently wrote in a piece called,

Does the Universe Need God? And in that he said, over the past 500 years the progress of science has worked to strip away

God's roles in the world. He isn't needed to keep things moving or to develop the complexity of living creatures or to account for the existence of the universe.

Perhaps the greatest triumph, he says, of the scientific revolution has been in the realm of methodology, control groups, double -blind experiments, and insistence on precise and testable predictions, a suite of techniques constructed to guard against the very human tendency to see things that aren't there.

How ironic. There is no control group for the universe, but in our attempts to explain it, we should aim for a similar level of rigor.

If and when cosmologists develop a successful scientific understanding of the origin of the universe, we will be left with a picture in which there is no place for God to act.

If he does, through subtle influences on quantum mechanical transitions or the progress of evolution, it is only in ways that are unnecessary and imperceptible.

We can't be sure that a fully naturalist understanding of cosmology is forthcoming, but at the same time there is no reason to doubt it, he says.

Two thousand years ago, it was perfectly reasonable to invoke God as an explanation for natural phenomena.

Now, he says, we can do much better. I wish

I could tell you that this was a minority report or even an outlier among the scientific community, but sadly it reflects the vast majority of modern science, and their naturalistic unbelief has not remained in academia, but it has filtered down to the masses through public education and mass media, who are all too willing to accept and indoctrinate the cultural with these

God -denying presuppositions. And they do this while proclaiming themselves to be smarter, more educated, and while mocking and marginalizing those who have a biblical worldview.

Of course, this scientific skepticism is not new. There is nothing new under the sun, and it probably began as early as the serpent's deception to Eve in the

Garden of Eden, when he said, indeed has God said, but it has grown much worse in the past few centuries, with the

European Enlightenment and the Renaissance and the subsequent rationalism that wrested observational science from scientists with a theistic worldview and became the domain of nominal and outright godless skeptics.

The collateral damage from this is all around us. We have had generations of the publicly schooled who buy into the tenets of this human wisdom, and the body count just keeps rising.

Hundreds of millions of abortions worldwide in the past 50 years, excused by godless science that says humans are only potential until the later stages of pregnancy or even birth.

Millions upon millions of God's image -bearers who have killed themselves, bolstered by the scientific idea that we are stardust, made by natural processes that didn't have us in mind.

Hundreds of millions, if not billions, of souls massacred and maimed in wars instigated by wicked rulers with godless ideologies fueled by atheistic science.

And with no need of the God hypothesis, millions of the young in our own times are emboldened to abandon

God's good gift of gender and masquerade as another sex, deceiving and even mutilating themselves to service that lie.

The situation is dire, to say the least. And as this rejection of God's wisdom affects the world around us, our families, our friends, our children and grandchildren, it even penetrates the church.

We are tempted with these godless philosophies daily, and they have taken a devastating toll upon the body of Christ and her witness in the world.

Our human need to be liked and respected overrides our devotion to Christ and to his word, and we compromise with the world so that we are not seen as extreme or fundamentalist or believing fairy tales.

Instead of boldly declaring God's truth to a dying, God -rejecting world, we cower and seek to justify ourselves before men.

Brothers and sisters, what is the solution to this problem? We find it here in Proverbs chapter 30, verses 1 through 6.

We find it in this ancient confession and catechism of the faith, as we continue in this series of messages from Proverbs, and how we are to follow

Jesus in every area of life. I have entitled this sermon

Agur Ben Jekah's Confession, Catechism, and Proclamation. And Lord willing, in it we will see the wisdom and sufficiency of Yahweh's revelation of himself in Jesus to us, and be enlivened to stand upon and proclaim his word, no matter what the opposition, all for the glory of our great

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. As we consider this text, we will do so under three headings.

First, in verses 1 through 3, we will see a confession of folly. In verse 4, we will see a catechism of faith, and in verses 5 and 6, we will see a declaration of the sufficiency of God's word.

Let us begin and look at Agur's confession of folly. Verse 1, the words of Agur, the son of Jekah, the oracle.

Before he tells us his specific deficiencies, before he confesses them to us, the author confesses his identity.

He tells us who he is. This section of Proverbs, these 33 verses in chapter 30, are

Agur's words. But who was Agur? This is the only time he is mentioned in Scripture.

Many Jewish commentators and early Christian writers believed this to be King Solomon, using a name for himself like he does at the beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes, where he calls himself the

Preacher. The name Agur means the gathered. So the theory goes that Solomon called himself

Agur to indicate that he was a gatherer of divine wisdom. But I think

John Gill and Matthew Poole both make good cases in their commentaries that what we know of King Solomon does not accord with what

Agur tells us about himself in this chapter. So we know nothing, almost nothing, about Agur, where he came from, what exact time he lived in, whether or not he was an

Israelite. All we know about him is what he tells us here. But don't let that trouble you.

As the Reformed commentator Charles Bridges remarked about this mystery, our ignorance of the writers of many of the

Psalms in no degree hinders their prophet to us. We know their author when the penmen are hid.

It is enough for us to be assured that they were holy men of God who wrote as they were moved by the

Holy Ghost. Next we are told that the human author is the son of Jacob.

In the original language it read Ben -Jacob or Ben -Yacob. This is why

I called him Agur Ben -Jacob in my title. Much the way we use surnames or last names today, saying son of distinguished you from others with the same name.

Agur is the son of a man named Jacob, and we know even less about Jacob than we do

Agur. All we know for certain is that he was Agur's father. What an honor to his father to be forever recorded in God's Word by name.

Agur, an author of Holy Scripture, did not forget his father before declaring

God's truth to his students and to us. Perhaps Jacob diligently trained his son in the

Word, and he was one of the human means that Yahweh used to save Agur and give him the wisdom we will see in the rest of this passage.

Later in this chapter in verses 11 and 17, Agur condemns and warns against dishonoring father and mother.

Parents, be encouraged by this brief honor from a son to his father. Your labors in raising your children in the discipline and instruction of the

Lord are not in vain. And children, let this great honor Agur gave to his father remind you to obey your parents in the

Lord and to honor them as the Lord commanded. Agur was the son of Jacob.

After these words of Agur, son of Jacob, are introduced, the nature of these words is confessed.

These are not mere words, but an oracle. This word rendered oracle means an utterance, a revelation given by God.

It can also be translated burden for its weighty character as a divine word or prophecy, as we see in Malachi 1 .1.

It is used 376 times in the Old Testament, and it is mostly used to describe revelations given to prophets of Yahweh.

For example, in Isaiah chapter 13 and verse 1, the prophet describes the prophecy he received from Yahweh about Babylon as an oracle.

And he will use that same word again in chapter 14 and verse 28 against Philistia, and in 15 .1

against Moab. But it's not just used for prophets for telling the future.

In the next and last chapter of Proverbs, chapter 31, the same word is used to describe the words of King Lemuel's mother, the discipline that King Lemuel's mother gave to him, godly counsel from a godly woman to his son.

The writers of the New Testament also use this concept of oracle to refer to teachings or sayings of the

Lord. In Acts chapter 7 and verse 38, Luke records the martyr

Stephen's use of oracles to refer to the revelation of God to Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.

The Apostle Paul uses it in Romans chapter 3 and verse 2 to refer to the whole of the

Old Testament revelation of God to the Jews. They were entrusted with the oracles of God.

The author of Hebrews uses it in 512 to refer to the truths about God that are taught to new believers.

And in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 11, the Apostle Peter says that the goal of the preacher is to speak the oracles of God.

And this identification of an oracle as a divinely given revelation is made even more clear by what immediately follows it.

The man declared. The word translated declared is another word that's often used in the

Old Testament, particularly by the prophets to describe prophetic utterances given by Yahweh.

Agur did not just receive this wisdom and instruction from the Lord and tuck it away for a rainy day.

He declared it. He proclaimed it. He preached it. So in verse 1 of chapter 30, this word oracle tells us that what is to follow is the wisdom and instruction revealed by the

Lord. These are not merely the musings or thoughtful advice of a man, but truths revealed by Yahweh through a man to other men and women and boys and girls.

This is not worldly wisdom or self -help schemes or helpful tips. They are the very words of God.

This is yet another part of our divine source for everything pertaining to life and godliness.

Though we know scarcely little about this man, we are to receive these words as the voice of the

Holy Spirit speaking to us through this man. This man he carried along to utter this revelation.

Next, Agur confesses to whom this oracle was given. He tells us who is the original audience for this oracle.

The man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ukal. Like Agur, little is known about these two men.

But as with so many people in the Bible, their names may give us hints. The first one mentioned,

Ithiel, his name means God with me. Now we know the name for Jesus, Immanuel, which means

God with us. But Ithiel emphasizes the personal nature of the divine presence.

God with me. Ukal means the mighty one. And that name signifies power.

These are specific names for people Agur knew well and surely loved based on how he instructs and warns them throughout this chapter.

And given the prevalent theme in the book of Proverbs of a father imparting divine wisdom to his son, these two men or boys could easily be

Agur's sons. Like King Solomon teaching his son godly instructions in the preceding 29 chapters, this chapter could likely be daddy

Agur leading his boys in righteous paths. But it is also very possible that these men were

Agur's children in the faith. Though they were not biologically related,

Paul saw Timothy as a genuine child in the faith and his beloved child, a child that was tenderly instructed in the mysteries of Christ.

The Apostle John called his readers his children in his epistles to the faithful, gently warning and testing them by the oracles of God.

Ithiel and Ukal may have very well been Agur's spiritual children.

Children he loved and cared for in the Lord. Children he sought to give wise godly counsel to the saving and sanctification of their souls.

A quick and hopefully helpful note about this identification of Agur's readers.

Some popular translations of the Bible such as the ESV and the NLT and the

New Revised Standard Version, they translate this section something like the man declares,

I am weary, O God. I am weary, O God, and worn out. The reason they do this is because if you revocalize the

Hebrew text here, that is, if you supply different vowels in between the letters of the Hebrew text which were only in consonants, the result gives you what you find in the

ESV. Besides it flowing well with the next few verses and the fact that most of the ancient versions of this text, such as the

Greek Septuagint, omit the proper names, there is not much evidence to suggest that this is the proper way to render the

Hebrew here. The LSB follows the tradition of the New American Standard Version and the

King James Version in translating this section as referring to people. We may have to wait until we get to glory to see who is right, if it matters, but I will be preaching the text before us the way the

LSB renders it. How Eger refers to himself here provides support for this relationship to his readers.

Eger calls himself the man. Like we may say, he's the man.

The man declares. The word used here for man speaks of strength, of might. Eger is a man known for his mightiness.

He may even be seen as a champion by his readers and others, but this word translated the man does not just connote physical strength in Scripture.

Just a few chapters back in chapter 24 and in verse 5, King Solomon tells his son, a wise man, the same word, a wise man is strong and a man of knowledge strengthens his power.

There he is speaking of strength that comes from the wisdom of consulting many counselors.

Wisdom that brings deliverance in war. In Psalm 34 8, the

Holy Spirit by the mouth of King David sings, O taste and see that Yahweh is good.

How blessed is the man, that same word again, who takes refuge in him.

Mighty is the mighty man who humbles himself and finds shelter in the Lord, who is truly mighty to save.

So when Eger calls himself the man, his learners, Ithiel and Ukal, would be reminded of his reputation for greatness as a teacher of God's word, as one who could instruct them in the wise ways of Yahweh.

It would almost be like, in reading this section, it would be like him saying, what you are about to hear and read is declared to you by the man known around these parts as the mighty and strong, who's mighty and strong in the wisdom of God.

This build up of an introduction makes what comes next all the more shocking and ironic to Ithiel and Ukal and to us.

What we read next is Eger's confession of folly, his confession of folly.

He has told his hearers who he is, who gave him this message, and to whom he writes.

And now he totally flips the script and tells them and us what the

Lord revealed to him about his supposed wisdom and strength. I borrowed confession of folly from Matthew Henry, but I shortened it.

In his commentary on this section, he calls it a confession of his folly and the weakness and deficiency of reason.

In this confession in verses two and three, Eger, the man, the mighty and strong teacher of God's wisdom, he is going to confess to his children in the faith,

Ithiel and Ukal, the men who undoubtedly look to him for guidance and wise teaching in the

Lord. He will confess his utter ignorance and weakness before God. When we think of confessions in the

Bible, we normally think of confessions of faith, statements of faith about God, his great works, and his word.

Eger will deliver all of this, but in the form of a humble confession of lowliness before God.

He will show his pupils and us what it is for a mighty teacher to bow before Yahweh's infinite power and knowledge.

Surely I am more senseless than any man, and I do not have the understanding of mankind.

Eger's confession of folly begins with a startling admission of his epic stupidity.

You could render the first part, surely I am too stupid to be a man. The word translated senseless comes from a primitive root that was used to describe grazing cattle and burning waste.

It was the idea of deadness, an indifference to reason. Back in Proverbs 12, 1,

Solomon used the same word to describe the one who hates reproof in contrast to the one who loves discipline and knowledge.

Just like you can't reason with a stampeding herd of cows because of their lack of sense, so is the senseless person.

The difference is for the brute beasts, there's no sin involved with their brutishness.

They are just dumb animals doing what they were created to do. But for the man made in God's image, this foolishness is an intentional stupidity.

It's a forced error, and it's evidence of our rebellion and fall. It's what

Paul is talking about in Romans 1 when he writes of fallen humanity, for even though they knew

God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened.

This senselessness comes not as a result of knowing God, of not knowing

God. For the apostle shows that we do know him from creation, but it comes from an active, unrighteous suppression of the truth.

And unlike the senseless cattle, we have no excuse for our willful stupidity.

We are willfully ignorant. We want to be stupid when it comes to God so that we can remain in our sin.

But Yahweh says this, I will give you insight and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose harness and bit are bit and bridle to control them.

Otherwise, they will not come near you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in Yahweh, loving kindness shall surround him.

Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous ones, and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.

And that's from Psalm 32, verses 7 through 11. Because of the work of God the

Holy Spirit in Agur's heart, he is no longer blind to his senselessness, and he cries out, surely

I am more senseless than any man. His new sight has made him aware of the condition from which he has been delivered.

The use of the word that's translated here, surely, which means indeed, or truly, or most definitely.

This word shows the emphatic nature of this revelation to Agur that he is declaring to his sons in the faith.

There's no doubt in his mind that any other human could top his utter dullness.

And he wants them to know. It sounds like the Apostle Paul's confession to his son in the faith.

It is a trustworthy saying and deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom

I am foremost. As Paul, perhaps the wisest and most important Christian in the history of the church, he saw himself as the chief, the greatest sinner.

Agur, also humbled by God's revelation, sees himself as the most indifferently stupid man.

This mighty man, this one that they saw as wise, as a sage, as a mighty man of wisdom, he is as stupid as the cattle of the field, but without excuse.

Yahweh's oracle to him has humbled him, but there's even more. Agur goes even further in this confession of godless folly.

Not only has he been convicted and made aware of his senselessness and his spiritual indifference toward God and his truth, but he also proclaims,

Now, this is what is called synthetic parallelism, and it's common in Hebrew poetry.

You take the idea in the first line and complement it in the second line, completing the thought and advancing the argument being made.

He is not just senseless, he lacks understanding. But what's the difference? If we go back to the beginning of Proverbs in Solomon's purpose statement for the book, he tells us to know wisdom and discipline, to understand the sayings of understanding, to receive discipline that leads to insight, righteousness, justice, and equity.

Because of this and many other examples I don't have time to go into, I'm confident that Agur's confession in chapter 30 is a spirit -illumined reaction to the rest of the book of Proverbs, which he had obviously read, and to the other wisdom literature in the

Old Testament, especially from the Psalms and Ecclesiastes, as we will see. Agur now sees that he is, not only is he indifferent to godly wisdom in and of himself, but he is also unable to discern truth and skillfully practice it.

He says he lacks this understanding of mankind, and that word mankind is

Adam. In the first line he was more senseless than any other man, any other person, but in the second line he does not have the understanding, the discernment of humanity collectively.

But it seems here he is referring to Adam's race in its original state of innocence, before the fall.

This may be why he uses Adam to refer to mankind in the second line. Up to that point,

Adam, as the representative of the whole human race, was the last man to be in a state of upright perfection before God.

As our confession reminds us, God created man upright and perfect.

Not only did Adam have wisdom from God, but he had the discerning ability to act upon that knowledge.

As John Gill notes, Adam, who was made after the image of God, which consisted in knowledge as well as holiness, who knew much of God, his nature, perfections, and persons, of the creatures, and the works of his hands, and of all things in nature,

Agur laments and admits that he does not have these perfections. God has revealed to him through his word that he is void of the understanding that characterized

Adam's race before his rebellion. Agur sees now that he, in his own power, is unable to carry out and to skillfully apply

God's wise commands. Now he sees that he is like mankind after the fall.

As Solomon preaches in Ecclesiastes, God made men, Adam, upright, but they have sought out many devices.

This confession by Agur of his senselessness and lack of understanding foreshadows

Paul's confession of his remaining sinful nature in Romans 7. Listen again to Paul's oft misunderstood declaration to his readers.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, having been sold into bondage under sin.

For what I am working out, I do not understand. For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing

I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good.

So now no longer am I the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the working out of the good is not.

For the good that I want I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one working it out, but sin which dwells in me.

I find then the principle that in me evil is present. In me who wants to do good.

For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which is in my members.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Here too is a man awakened by God to his wretched state.

Both men received this knowledge from God's Word as taught by the Spirit. Agur, like the

Apostle Paul long after him, was made alive in the inner man to see that the flesh, the old nature that fell in Adam, is captive, a slave and bondage to sin that still dwells in him.

The new man sees the utter corruption of the old man in all his faculties and cries out in repentant terror,

O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

I am more stupid than any person and I lack a human's ability.

And as we will see, both men are led to the same conclusion, to the same solution.

Agur's humble confession continues in verse 3. Neither have I learned wisdom, nor do

I know the knowledge of the Holy One. In this ascending list of deficiencies and failures,

Agur now gets to the main subject of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. That's right, wisdom.

We can imagine Agur reading through the earlier chapters of Proverbs and coming across Solomon's words in chapter 9 and verse 10, which were the exact same words of the psalmist in Psalm 111 10.

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. But what here is meant by wisdom?

The word here rendered wisdom. It has the sense of taking knowledge and experience and skillfully applying them to different situations.

Often this word is used of making plans for war. It's not just the possession of facts, but it's the ability to take those truths and to use them to win, to succeed, to live.

Pastor and theologian Joel Beeky, in his Reform Systematic Theology, a book we're using in Shepard's Institute right now, he writes of this wisdom that it empowers its possessors to fulfill the righteous and royal function of a just ruler in his officers.

Wisdom is a kingly attribute and a requisite for rule. In the context of this section, in the context of the whole book of Proverbs, wisdom is knowledge given by Yahweh through his word that equips his people to live in a way that is pleasing and honoring to him.

In chapter 2 verses 4 through 6 of Proverbs, the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Solomon tells us,

For Yahweh gives wisdom. From his mouth comes knowledge and discernment.

He stores up sound wisdom for the upright, a shield to those who walk in integrity, to guard the paths of justice, and he keeps the way of his holy ones.

Agur confesses he has not been instructed by God's wisdom. Though he may have been known to his students and to the world as a wise man, he has been made aware by God's oracle to him that this supposed knowledge is foolishness.

It was not wisdom given or learned from the

Lord, but worldly knowledge that served to puff him up and not to serve

Yahweh. By the world's standards, he may have been a real brain. He may be considered somewhat of a genius or an eminent scholar.

Later in this chapter, he exhibits a great deal of knowledge about the natural world.

He tells us about the behaviors of ants and eagles and leeches and rot badgers and lizards and locusts.

Maybe Agur was an ancient naturalist, as Spurgeon said, a biologist trained in the properties and functioning of the created order.

Many commentators have surmised as much. Maybe he was like the eminent scientists of our age that I talked about earlier, that in their great learning they think they can show by natural means that the universe doesn't need

God. Or maybe Agur didn't go that far. Maybe he professed

Yahweh as the creator of all things, but still relied on his knowledge of the world to tell him how to live.

A man of great worldly learning, but he still laments, I have not learned wisdom.

The wisdom he had was not from God and it couldn't save him. The Apostle Paul, when telling the church in Corinth about the wisdom from God that does save, he asked some rhetorical questions like Agur will in verse 4.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?

And the answer? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know

God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

God through his oracle, through his revelation, has made plain to Agur that his worldly wisdom was not the wisdom from Yahweh that delivers the soul from death.

What was once great knowledge and wisdom to him has now been made folly and utter foolishness by the

Lord's Word. Now it is likely due to the placement of Agur's burden in the book of Proverbs that he lived after King Hezekiah, for we are told in chapter 25 and verse 1, these also were

Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, transcribed.

If Agur was alive during or after Hezekiah's reign, he may have got to read or hear

Isaiah's prophecy of judgment against the leaders of Israel for their religious hypocrisy, a religious hypocrisy that was based on human wisdom, a religious hypocrisy that the

Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul would later quote that section as a rebuke.

As from chapter 29 verses 13 through 14 in Isaiah, This is not the wisdom

Agur cries out for in our text. It is a seductive substitute that has the appearance of godliness but denies its power.

It is the ungodly wisdom of the Pharisees who elevated human traditions above God's Word and had a man -made pseudo -righteousness based on law -keeping instead of the imputed justification given to those who have the faith of Abraham.

That worldly wisdom seeks its own path, its own broad gate, a gate and a path that lead to destruction.

There is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death. Thus says

Yahweh, cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength and whose heart turns away from Yahweh.

Which one do you have? Is your wisdom from God's Word or is it from the traditions of men and from your own vain imaginations?

Even those who would presume to teach in Christ's Church are solemnly warned. Who among you is wise and understanding?

Let him show by his good conduct his works in the gentleness of wisdom.

But if you had bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.

This wisdom is not coming down from above but is earthly, natural, demonic.

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder in every evil practice.

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruits, without doubting, without hypocrisy.

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Does your heart cry out repentantly in the face of God's revelation of his

Oracle? Does it cry out repentantly for his saving knowledge?

Or do you scoff at the idea that you need the wisdom Agur confessed he didn't have? Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.

Back in verse 3 of our text, notice Agur connects this line to the last one using the word neither.

He did that in the previous line also using the same word that is translated neither here, but there it is translated and I do not.

These deficiencies, these failures in him, they're not mutually exclusive. They are all linked.

His senselessness, his willful stupidity is connected to his lack of understanding.

And both of those are linked to not learning wisdom. Agur's confession is not an admission of a few faults and a couple of different areas of thinking.

He is confessing the total corruption and deficiency of his whole being.

He doesn't just need to change his thinking on a few things and he'll be good.

Agur is not saying that he just needs another chance and he'll do better. No. The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint.

From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it. As our confession teaches, man in his sin is completely defiled in all his capabilities and parts of soul and body.

But you will say to me, yeah, nobody's perfect, but I still do more good than bad.

Oh, foolish one. You are perfect, perfectly fallen, completely rebellious.

Every part and member, including your mind and heart, is swallowed up by this spiritual deadness.

The good you think you cannot, the good you think you do cannot please God because your mind is set on the flesh and not on the

Spirit of God. And you are at enmity toward God. You are at war with him in your heart.

Nothing good dwells in your cursed nature. Cry out with Agur that you are totally undone by your ignorant folly and seek the one who can give you saving wisdom.

Agur goes on, nor do I know the knowledge of the Holy One. Agur's confession reaches its zenith, its

Everest peak. It is to this epic height the other shameful admissions were ascending.

Not only has he been indifferently stupid and senseless to God's revelation as cattle and burning excrement, not only has he been devoid of the understanding, the ability to skillfully live out

God's Word that Adam had in his pre -fall blissful innocence, but also he does not know, he does not have the knowledge of the

Holy One. Again, he links the previous confessions to this one with a connecting word that we read as nor.

All that has been confessed before has been leading up to and hangs upon this ultimate profession.

The word that Agur uses here that we translate knowledge, it has the idea here and throughout

Proverbs and really the rest of the wisdom literature, it has the idea of an intimate discernment, understanding, and a wisdom that comes only from Yahweh's self -revelation and is of the highest value.

This true knowledge is the possession of those who fear the Lord, for that reverence is its beginning or origin.

In Proverbs chapter 1 and verse 7, we're told that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge.

And again in chapter 9 and verse 10, the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the

Holy One is understanding. This knowledge is not just talking about knowing facts about God, for even the demons know those and shudder, but it is a relational knowledge of God.

They know about God, but they don't know God. Agur is not confessing that he lacks some head knowledge about the

Holy One, but that he has not known Him. As mighty and worldly wisdom

Agur may have been, now he laments and admits before Ithiel and Ukal that he lacks the most excellent and needful knowledge, the knowledge without which all the other is but vanity.

As the prophet Jeremiah would declare to Judah before it was destroyed by the Babylonians, to those who spurned

Yahweh in his knowledge and sought what was right in their own eyes. Thus says

Yahweh, let not a wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast in his might.

Let not a rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am

Yahweh who shows loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things, declares

Yahweh. This wise man has been awakened by God's Word to his perilous state.

This mighty man has been humbled by the realization that he did not know, that he did not have or possess this gracious relationship with the

Most High God. Do you? Do you know him?

And his confession concludes with the admission that he has not known or had the knowledge of the

Holy One. Yahweh's oracle had revealed to Agur that he did not know the

Lord in his holiness. O cursed condition! The consuming fire readies itself at this desperate disclosure.

The law of Yahweh thunders in dreadful response. By those who come near me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people

I will be glorified. Agur had not known God as the

Holy One, he tells us, and yet he lived to tell about it, unlike Nadab and Abihu.

In his humility, in his admission of this great guilt to his learners before Yahweh, the merciful

Lord granted him eyes and ears to hear, for God gives grace to the humble,

Proverbs 3 34, and he blesses those who see their spiritual poverty.

The Lord had revealed his holiness to him and granted him repentance and a knowledge of his great sin of not knowing him.

In his classic work on the attributes of God, the knowledge of the holy, the

American pastor and author A .W. Tozer famously wrote, what comes into our minds is the most important thing about us, and then he expanded, that our idea of God correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us compared with actual thoughts about him.

Our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is.

Only after an ordeal of painful self -probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.

Eger is going through this painful self -examination Tozer speaks of in verse 3.

Yahweh's oracle has laid bare his wrong understandings and conceptions of the covenant

Lord. God the Spirit is showing him his sore ignorance to know and understand the holy one.

But what does it mean for God to be the holy one?

What is it for God to be holy? The root word from which this word is translated, holy one, it originally meant to be set apart, to be separated.

God is therefore called the holy one because he exists in himself and nothing can be compared to him, as we sang earlier.

This exalted title for Yahweh used often by the psalmist and was favored by the prophet

Isaiah. He used it over 25 times in his prophecy and it emphasized that he is absolutely distinct from all his creatures and he is exalted above them in infinite majesty.

It is not so much one distinct attribute of God as it is an all -encompassing quality, his holiness.

But as John Gill described it, as the luster, glory, and harmony of all the rest.

And this is what is called the beauty of the Lord. Since God is absolutely supreme in his dealings with his creatures, he claims everything for himself and makes it subservient to his purposes.

As Gerhardus Voss said, we may also describe God's holiness as that attribute by which he seeks and loves himself as the highest possible good and demands reasonable goodness from the creature and to be consecrated to him.

God, whose very name, Yahweh, is holy, alone is to be praised and worshiped.

As those who have overcome the devil's beast in John's apocalypse sing in the song of Jesus, the

Lamb of God, great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the

Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of nations. Who will not fear,

O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. Yahweh is the

Holy One. What Agur had not known, or rather who he had not known, was now before him.

His understanding has been opened to behold the one who alone is holy. Now that Agur has made this confession,

Dexte does what any good Reformed Baptist would do. He presents a catechism to his children.

Look back at verse 4. Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists?

Who has wrapped the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth?

What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know. Now I kid about the

Reformed Baptist thing, kind of, but this verse does form what we would see as a catechism.

If verses 1 through 3 are a confession of folly, then verse 4 could be a catechism of faith.

Faith in the Holy One who was confessed at the end of verse 3. Now it is different from our catechisms in that it doesn't provide the answers here, only the questions and an affirmation at the end, but as we will see, the oracles of God provide the answer.

Not man's worldly wisdom, not his vain speculations, not man's

God -denying science. God's pure, tested word will reveal the answer to this ancient riddle and dark saying.

And though it is a catechism of faith, and through this catechism of faith, Yahweh will reveal the cure, the remedy for our stupefying senselessness, our innate lack of understanding and godly wisdom, and of not knowing the

Holy One. Six questions, one glorious answer. Question one, who has ascended into heaven and descended?

Who is the Holy One that Agur confesses he does not know in his old self? He is the one who has ascended into heaven and descended.

Agur does not give his name, but instead leaves the revelation of his identity to the diligent searching of God's Word.

After they transgressed the commandment not to eat of the forbidden fruit, our first parents, Adam and Eve, Moses tells us, heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the

Garden of Eden, in the cool of the day, manifesting his presence in the midst of the garden's trees.

And he conversed with them before pronouncing the terrible curse for their rebellion and the salvation that was to come in the promised seed.

He appeared as a man to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, eating and drinking with him, and confirming the promise of the blessings to the nations through the seed.

Yahweh on earth rained down fire and brimstone on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah from Yahweh out of heaven, we're told in Genesis 19 -24.

He appeared in Jacob's dream, standing atop a ladder that reached from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it.

And Yahweh restated and reaffirmed the covenant promises made to Abraham and his seed.

And then they had that wrestling match. More than a thousand years later, the soon -to -be prophet

Isaiah sees the Lord sitting as a man on a throne in the temple, high and lifted up, with the angels standing above him with their feet and faces covered, calling out to one another, holy, holy, holy is

Yahweh of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. We see in the

Old Testament God appearing in the form of a man many times as he speaks to the heirs of the covenant promises in the foretold seed of the woman.

God's revelation clearly shows that it is he, Yahweh, who is the Holy One. So Agur's fifth catechism question is answered here.

But the identity of the human seed who would crush the head of the serpent and redeem fallen humanity was still a mystery hidden in God.

Until the word became flesh and dwelt among us. As it is written, in these last days

God has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.

In John chapter 3, Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, the word made flesh, answers

Agur's first question. As he revealed to Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, the mysteries of the new birth into the kingdom of God by the

Holy Spirit's power, Christ tells him, are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things?

Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness of what we have seen and you do not accept our witness.

If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

And no one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the

Son of Man. The man Christ Jesus is the Son of Man, who

John tells a few verses later, tells us a few verses later, will be lifted up as the bronze serpent who was to save the serpent -bitten

Israelites in Moses's time who looked in faith. But Christ would be lifted up on the cross, drawing the faithful from all nations to himself.

And he is the only begotten Son of God, the Father, sent from heaven into the world so that all who believe would not perish but have everlasting life.

Yahweh God, the Holy One, has come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In his holiness, the Holy One did not sin but took on himself the sins of all his people, people from every tribe and tongue and nation, making propitiation for their sins, a propitiation to be received by faith for a demonstration of God's righteousness so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The Apostle Paul goes on to tell us that Jesus, the same one who saved him, is the one who has ascended and descended.

Listen to Romans chapter 10 verses 6 through 10. The righteousness of faith speaks in this way, do not say in your heart who will go up or ascend into heaven, that is to bring

Christ down, or who will go down or descend into the abyss, that is to bring

Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth the

Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For the Scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. As the ancient

Creed testifies, he was born, he died, he descended into Hades, he rose again from the dead, and he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the

Father. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. And Scripture says, he who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all things, so that he might fill all things.

And by common confession, Paul tells us, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was manifested in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Yahweh, the Holy One, who granted repentance to Agur to see his lack of true wisdom and to know

God, know the God he had not known. He has come and revealed himself as Jesus Christ the righteous.

God's name is Yahweh and his son's name is Jesus, and he shall save his people from their sins.

The exposition of the other three Catechism questions will have to be left to another time, though their answer is the same

Holy One. As we conclude, let us for a few moments consider the proclamation

Agur gives in verses five and six. Every word of God is tested.

He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you and you be proved a liar.

Having humbly confessed his fallen ignorance before Yahweh, and having then catechized his learners with the oracle

God gave him, Agur finishes this section with a proclamation, a proclamation of the sufficiency of God's Word.

No more personal disclosures, no more questions, no more riddles. The truth of the

Holy One has been revealed, and now he proclaims to Ithiel and Ukol, and to us, and to all who would read this proverb, he proclaims the absolute completeness and adequacy of the

Lord's revelation, his oracle, his Word. First, Agur extols the sufficient

Word's reliability. Every word of God is tested.

You could also translate this, every word of God is pure or flawless.

The word here that we read is tested. It has the idea of being proven true.

Unlike man, God cannot lie, for he is the truth, and he is not truthful some of the time, like we are.

Every word is true. Unlike man, God cannot be wrong. All knowledge is his, and in Christ his

Son are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He knows the end from the beginning.

The past, the present, the future, all are his creation, and his purpose shall stand.

Heaven and Earth will pass away, but his words will not pass away. King David proclaimed, the words of Yahweh are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace on the ground, refined seven times.

The words of men fail. Philosophers will err and be found wanting.

Scientists will teach and promote erroneous theories that they may replace when we're not looking after their proven false.

But every word of God is tested. It is pure and absolutely reliable.

A wise man will build his life upon it as he would a rock, and not upon the shifting sands of human opinion and private interpretations.

What foundation do you have? What are you building upon? John Owen wisely observed that since all the

Word of God is tested, all the Word of God is proven true. He says, to reject any one tittle or jot of it is sufficient demonstration that not one jot or tittle of it is received as it ought.

Is the Word of God tested and proven true to you? Is it pure to you? Do you find it absolutely reliable in all of its parts?

Examine yourselves, for as the confession explains and attests, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority of the scriptures comes from the internal work of the

Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.

Without God's Spirit working in you, you will never receive all his

Word as tested, as proven, as pure. Second, Ager proclaims that the

Word's author is sufficient in his own power to save. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

If those words sound familiar, it may be because they are identical to words King David sang in his

Song of Deliverance in the day that Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, a song that's recorded in 2

Samuel chapter 22. In verse 31, David exclaims,

As for God, his way is blameless. The Word of Yahweh is tried. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.

And David may have had in mind Moses' last song of blessing in the plains of Moab to the children of Israel who were about to go into the

Promised Land. He sang, Blessed are you, O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh?

Who is the shield of your help and the sword of your majesty? For Moses and David and Ager, Yahweh God is a shield.

He is their protection, their defense against their enemies. After Abram returned from his slaughter of the kings and his blessing from Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, before the

Lord cut the covenant with him, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision saying,

Do not fear, Abram. I am a shield to you. Your reward shall be very great.

How much more is he a shield to us who have believed in his mighty Son, the Holy One, who descended in humility but has ascended in exaltation, having all power in heaven and on earth, and in whose name every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is

Lord to the glory of God his Father. And he is a refuge.

He is a shelter, a fortress to those who take refuge in him. This mighty refuge shields all his people.

He is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. They hear his voice and follow him to safety and he gives them eternal life and they will never perish, never perish.

No one will snatch them out of his almighty hand or that of his Father. Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

Will affliction or turmoil or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?

Just as it is written, For your sake we are being put to death all day long.

We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our

Lord. For those who take refuge in him, for those who hear and receive his word, he is an invincible shield.

For if God is for us, who can be against us? Have you taken refuge in him?

He is not a shield for those who refuse his refuge, but a mighty foe.

In that hopeless case, it is God himself that is against you. And against those rebels we read, he treads the winepress of the wrath of the rage of God the

Almighty. And their blood will go as high as horse bridles for miles. To those enemies who said, we do not want this man to reign over us.

He commanded, bring them here and slay them in my presence. Kill them before me.

To not take refuge in Christ, to not have him as your shield, is to be struck down by his mighty sword and die in eternal fire as his enemy.

Why will you die? Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

Flee to his refuge. Take up his armor. Turn from your own ways and trust his almighty defense.

And this, lastly, and I cease, a solemn warning. In verse 6,

Agur warns us not to make a substitute for God's sufficient word.

Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you and you be proved a liar. In these words of warning to Ithiel and Ukol, you can hear an echo of Moses's admonition to the children of Israel as they readied to go into Canaan.

So now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which

I am teaching you to do, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which

Yahweh, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word which

I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh, your

God, which I am commanding you. Your eyes have seen that Yahweh has done.

In the case of Baal Peor, for all the men who walked after Baal Peor, Yahweh, your

God, has destroyed them from among you. But you who clung to Yahweh, your

God, are alive today, every one of you, because Yahweh's revelation to his people is perfect, because it is tested and pure and all -sufficient.

He will not tolerate creaturely additions to or omissions from his holy oracles.

To add to his word or take away from it obstructs his people from keeping his commandments.

For if the commandments of God are modified or diminished by those who teach his word, then the sheep will be led astray, and the unbeliever will be bolstered in their apostasy.

When the church succumbs to the pressure of the world and modifies its teaching to prevailing trends and popular notions, people and their souls are destroyed.

Hear me, 24 ,000 Israelites who believed the false teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching

Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things, sacrifice to idols, and to commit sexual immorality with Moabite women, 24 ,000 were killed by a plague from the

Lord's hand in a single day. But that was just a temporal judgment, a temporal judgment that looks forward to the ultimate punishment for tampering with God's word.

On the last page of Holy Scripture, Jesus, the Eternal Word, issues his invitation and warning.

I, Jesus, sent my angel to bear witness to you of these things for the churches. I am the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star, and the

Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who is thirsty come.

Let the one who wishes receive the water of life without cost. I bear witness to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.

If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book.

And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book.

Earlier in the book of Revelation, in the letter to the church at Pergamum, the risen

Christ told their messenger that like Balaam had taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, the one that led to 24 ,000 people falling in a day.

He said, So you also have some in the same way holding the teaching of the

Nicolaitans. Therefore, repent, but if not,

I'm coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Brothers and sisters, let us hear what the

Spirit says to his church, and let us turn away from every false way.

May we heed the confession and the catechism and the proclamation of Agur to his sons in the faith that we've read.

May we despise and repent of worldly wisdom and seek the knowledge of the

Holy One. May we search the Scriptures daily to know him who for his glory and our salvation descended and ascended to heaven, and may we hold fast to his all -sufficient

Word, and we may not be reproved and be found to be liars on that great day.

Let's pray. Gracious God and Father, Lord, thank you for your

Word. Thank you, Lord, that it is a light to us, for those who are stumbling around in senselessness and stupidity and in arrogance and hypocrisy.

Thank you, Lord, that you save sinners by your

Son, Jesus Christ, who has become to us wisdom and redemption.

Praise be to you, God our Father. Bless the Word that has been preached. Please, Holy Spirit, apply this

Word to our hearts. Convict us, Lord. Lay us bare. May we understand and learn from you,

Lord, that we may be saved and sanctified and glorify you.