Agur's Profession of Faith

Well, take your Bible. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter 30. Proverbs chapter 30. We were in chapter 29, a week before last, but we are moving along. I think everybody knows how we have been going along in Proverbs, not verse by verse by no means, just seeing what comes to the surface. And I'm going to say what I have said so many times. I'm encouraging you to study along. I'm encouraging you to develop some type of a habit in the book of Proverbs. Study, discipline yourself to study, develop a study habit, a study plan, maybe tailor it for you. What matters is if you are going through God's Word. I have said read ahead, read behind.

Before long, you won't be able to read ahead because we're almost through. But when we get through with Proverbs, don't leave Proverbs, okay? Let's make Proverbs a regular part of our spiritual diet. Now, we have some changes here as we are moving along. Now, let me explain what I mean. We have the next to the last book. I mean, Proverbs 31 is the last. I said this one night. We're going to look at the godly woman there, the Proverbs 31 woman. I'm nervous. Anytime I teach on women, I get nervous. But we're here at the next to the last book, and we're also here at the next to the last section.

I've tried to show you the sections that are in the book, but chapter 30 is a unique section. It is titled the Oracles of Agar, or some will call him a sage or a teacher. We'll talk about the title a little later. In Psalm or Proverbs 31, it's called the Proverbs of the Mother of Lemuel. And noticing these sections and these divisions, it is good. Now, this reminded me of the previous section that we weren't, we were in not too long ago, and that was in chapter 25, verse 1. Remember, those Proverbs were compiled by Hezekiah's scholars, Hezekiah's men.

And noticing sections can be good, whatever we're studying, because the sections come together, and it's all part of the totality of the message of the book, and then breaking it on down to the verses and even the words. But here, we have what scholars call the Oracles of Agar. Now, some Bibles have a heading. It might say the words. It could be a different type of heading. Now, truthfully, Bible translations have different types of headings. That's okay. Even if you read extra biblical material like commentaries, things like that, you will see different types of headings. And don't let that trick you or fool you.

Remember, editors, things like that, will give titles. We talked about that with the Lord's Prayer or the disciples' Prayer. I call it the model prayer, the patter of prayer. We talked about that Sunday morning. Now, before we get into our verses, I want to ask us two questions. This will really set us up for what we're going to look at. The first question is what, and the second question is who. Who is this individual that you probably have never paid attention to, Agar? And then what is an oracle? Look at verse 1 of chapter 30. What does it say? The words of Agar, and then it goes on down and it says the oracle.

Now, that's something we can just pass over because we want to really get into the teaching. But there's a lot here that we need to see. First of all, who is this individual? To be honest with you, there are two things that we do know about this teacher. First of all, we know very little. I mean, we just don't know a lot about him. But second, there is much debate about who he was. Scholars believe that he was a respected teacher, that he possessed great wisdom, that he was compiling these words, these sayings. We've seen this before. And some scholars believe that he lived during the time of Solomon or just after.

So for me, I believe he was a sage. He was a teacher. He was a wise teacher there at the time of Solomon or maybe after. But the important thing is, is he was led of the Spirit of God to compile these proverbs, these wise sayings. And they're in the canon of God's Word. But then what's an oracle? What is an oracle? Simply an oracle in the Old Testament is seen as a word or a message from God. Sometimes an oracle can be called a prophecy from God, but not necessarily a prophecy like predicting the future. That's not what we're talking about here. An oracle would have been seen as a weighty or a burdensome message from God.

The meaning of an oracle or a prophecy would have been seen as heavy and very serious. Also, an oracle would have been seen as holy, meaning that the message was from God, and it carried within it the message of God, the character of God, and the purposes of God, although it was delivered by man. So starting in verse 1, right there we see it. We have an oracle of God. This is a word or a prophecy, this entire chapter, from God. We have a weighty and a serious message from God. But then again, we have the fact that it's an oracle of a man, this man named Agar.

And this was a real man of God who was respected, I believe, a respected, wise teacher. And we'll see that there is a lot of the man in the verses. I kind of wrote it late this afternoon like this. This is a message from God, and then we'll see the man is in the message. But then turn it around. This is a message from a man, a man of God, and God is in the message. I'll go back to that a time or two as we continue. Now, a question I want us to think about. Think about this with me, okay? If I ask you to give your personal profession of faith, what would you say? I can guess one thing that you would say. But think about this.

If I were to poll you, you know, not all of us stand up in front of people. I know that. But if we were in a setting where you were comfortable, and you were to give your personal profession of faith, what would you say? Now, let me mention a few things and show you how this ties in. First of all, you'd start with your testimony, how you came to faith in Christ. That's kind of part of our verbiage, our terminology, things we think and say and do in the life of the Baptist Church. Our profession of faith would be our testimony. But then we would move on, probably.

We would talk about how God is working in our life, how God is working in our life currently, maybe how God's worked in our life in the past to bring us up to where we are today. But yet, some people, when they would give their profession of faith, maybe they would move on to talk about maybe their doctrinal positions, their theology, how God's Word has impacted their life, and they would express truths from God's Word. And then some of you might even go so far as to say, you know, part of your profession of faith, how God's brought you here. Now, that's an incomplete list.

I'm just showing you how our profession of faith can go beyond just our testimony of conversion, and it should. And I challenge you to be able to articulate your profession of faith more than just how you came to faith in Christ. You see, all of us should be able to do that. We should be able to share our profession of faith, and it should represent not just our conversion, not just how He is working in our lives. It should contain the truth of God, what God is teaching us, how God is using us. If you have the time, it should contain a lot, you see? Well, in many ways, that's what we have here in chapter 30.

In chapter 30, we first have a message from God for all men. This is timeless. Scholars even believe that there were some young men that He taught. So if this was for them, it was for them, and it is also for us. So first, we have a message from God for all men. Second, we have a profession of faith from a man, a particular man. And this chapter really, as I was studying it, this word came to my mind, and you'll get it. This chapter is pregnant with some very weighty teaching from God, but it is also pregnant with the man, this man of God. And we'll see it's very personal. Remember what I said earlier?

It's a message from God with a man in the message, and it's a message from a man, but it's got God in the message. So I'll show you how we're going to look at this. We're going to look at verses 2 to 4, actually, when you see the title. Now, as you're writing this down, I will tell you that I labored over the title. I like titles. I try to give it an accurate title. I know pastors that will try to come up with a catchy title. Sometimes it doesn't fit. If it's catchy, fine, but if it's accurate. See, the title really is a summary of all that we're studying, and I don't know if this is purely accurate.

I think it is, but I have settled, I settled even today, with Eggers' profession of faith. And when I say I'm a little unsettled, it's a lot more than that. So you see what we're going to look at. As our habit is, I'm going to read the verses really as we go through the message. So number one, this is what I'm calling a great lowliness. That word might surprise you. A great lowliness. Look at verse 2. "Surely I am stupid to be a man." Look at that. "Surely I am stupid to be a man." I have not the understanding of a man.

And he goes on to say, "I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One." Now here, this man starts off his oracle with what can seem like self-abasement. You know what self-abasement is? You know, "Oh is me, woe is me." I think about Eeyore off of Winnie the Pooh. I've known people like that. It's all about self-abasement. But that's not what we have here. We do not have an unhealthy introspection. We don't have this attention-getting confession. Here we have great humility. Now I use the word lowliness because humility is so common, and it's so common it can lose its weightiness. But this man has a great sense of himself.

And a recognition that without God's help he would be utterly hopeless, and he is. He has a great lowliness about himself. Now there are two details I want us to see. They just come right out of the verses. First he seems to compare himself to an animal. You notice that in verse 2? He seems to compare himself to an animal. "Surely I am too stupid to be a man." I have not the understanding of a man. You see before the fall, we know the fall, Genesis 3. Before the fall man was in a state of knowledge. He had a perfect relationship with God, and he lived with a perfect knowledge of God and of God's ways in many ways.

Now I'm not acting like he was like God, being God, no. But what happened is this. When man failed he lost that relationship, and he lost that knowledge. Actually man became like the animals in that he would die. Originally he was not created to die. And here this man, this prophet, he sees himself as a beast. Simply, Edgar says he is too stupid to be a man, that he does not possess the understanding of the man. He is saying that he is lower than a man, even lower like an animal. The King James shows us. See in the original there is a hint of this animal language.

The King James here says it like this, "Surely I am more brutish than a man." One commentator turned it around, he translated it like this. He says, "A brute I am I rather than a man." See the emphasis? So what do we see? He seems to compare himself to an animal. But then second, notice he seems to express that he lacks spiritually. He seems to express that he lacks or is lacking spiritually. Verse 3, "I have not learned wisdom nor have I knowledge of the Holy One." Here he makes two observations about himself that points to a great liking in himself. First he observed, made an observation from without.

He says that he does not possess a learned wisdom. See from without. Now all through Proverbs we have seen that wisdom is associated with many things. I made an incomplete list. It's associated with a true relationship with God. It's associated with obedience to God. It's associated with turning from sin, turning from folly. Remember the contrast, the wise young man and the foolish young man. And so wisdom is associated with turning from sin. But one thing we see is that wisdom is associated with God's Word all through Proverbs. Well here, Agar says that he lacks learned wisdom. He lacks knowledge from without.

And then the second observation is from within. He says that he does not possess a knowledge of God from within. Look back at the verse. "I have not learned wisdom nor have I knowledge of the Holy One." He says he does not possess a knowledge of God from within. He has this understanding that he does not have the power or the ability from within himself to attain knowledge. You see? So simply this man is saying that he lacks spiritually. He does not have wisdom and he does not have knowledge that can be learned. And he can't get it from within himself. So notice what we have with this great lowliness. You can call it humility.

There's a lot of words you could use. There's this great humility. There's this great lowliness. Agar here sees properly and understands greatly his need for knowledge and wisdom. But he sees himself as below man beastly. The ESV that I'm reading from, the New American, it uses the word stupid. That should surprise you, but it's accurate. Agar here, he sees his great limitations and need and he is terribly disturbed about his condition. See, he's lowly. He is truly humble. Occasionally I'll give you some homework. Here's a good verse or two for you to read that is the exact same thing here. Great humility, great lowliness.

Job, the Old Testament character Job, Job chapter 3 starting in verse 3. On down to verse 26. You go read that and you'll see this same lowliness. I like how Matthew Henry describes this lowliness. I pulled a few of his words out and I'm quoting here. Listen to how he describes Agar here. And I'm quoting, before he makes confession of his faith, he makes confession of his folly and the weakness and deficiency of reason. You see, he goes on to say, before he, this is Agar, before he speaks concerning the Savior, he speaks of himself as needing a Savior and as nothing without him. And then Henry goes on to apply it.

We must go out of ourselves before we can go into Christ. You see, we're going to come back to that in our application. Now a question, we're going to apply what we're looking at, right? How should this be fleshed out in our lives? See, we must possess this great lowliness. We must possess true biblical humility, not self-abasement. No, we're not Eeyore. And we're not doing it out in public. We're not being like the Pharisees. We're studying in the Sermon on the Mount. We're not doing it from men to see. It must be this genuine work of lowliness and humility in us. What should that look like? Let me help you here.

When we come to faith in Christ and God reveals our sin, our sin against God, our sin, the sin in our life, specific sin, general sin, see when the Spirit of God begins to bring us to that place of conversion, we begin to see our sinfulness and that brings humility. That brings a lowliness. You know, you hear people begin to describe the awful things they've done and they feel like they can't get forgiveness for that. They see the terrible condition that they're in and the awful things that they've done. See, there's this work of humility and lowliness.

But then after we're converted, sanctification is our responsibility, but we can't sanctify ourselves without God. It's God the Spirit working within us, but yet we're working with God. But as we're walking with God in our sanctification, we have difficulties. We have struggles. We have great failures. And see, in our sanctification, there must be this great lowliness, this great humility. I thought about it like this. We have trials, difficulties. Sometimes our trials and persecutions come to humble us. God has to jerk us back a little, knock us down a peg or two. We get a little too high on our horse, and the Lord does what?

Circumstances come and humble us. But we must see that the trials, the persecutions, the difficulties is bringing about a great work in us of lowliness. Also, opportunities and success should humble us. Actually, in all of our life, in all that we do, in all that we are, in all that we try to do, in everything about us, we should maintain a great lowliness knowing that we will never be anything or do anything without God. Listen, folks, laugh to ourselves, laugh by ourselves. It's nothing but ruin. It's nothing but sin. Without God, we are nothing. And that should bring about this lowliness. And we can't get wisdom.

We can't get knowledge unless God helps us. God has to help us learn His Word in His ways. And also, we can't get it from within. It's not here within, you see. Think with me about the opposite of lowliness. What's the opposite of humility and lowliness? The opposite would be great pridefulness, great pride, arrogance. You know, I have used this illustration in the past. There are certain things that are self-evident. My wife has an uncle that's a legitimate 6'8" and about 325'. I mean, legitimate. Nobody is putting their finger on the scales or fudging on the measurement.

And I'll never forget when he walked in the door, I thought, "Yep, 6'8" self-evident. I mean, when he walked it, it's just self-evident. And you know when people are prideful, a lot of times it's self-evident. But when people are humble, when they have this lowliness about them, it doesn't mean they're wallowing in defeat. No, there's this lowliness about them, this humility about them, and it is self-evident, and it should be in our lives. So let's move on. Number two, this is just one verse, but it's really a lot. I'm calling this a great contemplation. Look at verse 4. It's a lot here. "Who has ascended to heaven and come down?

Who has gathered the wind in his fists or hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his garment?" When I read that, I thought about a lady with an old-fashioned apron, scooping up water. And then it goes on, "Who has established the ends of the earth or the boundaries? What is his name and what is his son's name? Surely you know." Now here, Edgar makes a shift in his oracle. He goes from looking low to looking high. You see? Here, Edgar poses a few questions that cause the reader to gaze up at the greatness of God, which is revealed in creation.

But these questions can only be answered by revelation from God, not simply by observing the creation. You see? This is all about the creation, but the answers cannot be gotten from creation. They must come from revelation. Four questions here. First, I'm paraphrasing, abbreviating the questions. First, "Who has ascended to the heavens and who has then come down?" Now the answer here is God. It's just God. It's obvious. It is God who is beyond the heights and the depths of the universe. He created it. He is beyond the heights and the depths of what He has created.

The Old Testament saints, Enoch and Elijah, you know the story of those two men? They didn't taste death. They were taken up to heaven, but they never returned. But then you know the story of Paul. He had the precious opportunity to be taken up to the third heaven, and he came back down the earth, but yet he was forbidden from speaking about what he saw. So only God can ascend and descend to every corner. Now I know it's not square, but I just put it in that language. To every corner of the universe and no man can follow. You know I automatically thought about all of the probes that NASA has sent out.

You know all of the probes that go to Mars and Neptune and Jupiter and all that, and then they'll find out some of the planets we thought were planets or not planets, and then they find out, no, they are planets. They go back and forth. And you know they go as far, I mean they go far out into the solar system, but yet God is beyond that. They can't catch up with God. They can't go to where God can go. He created it all. You see? He can go and is in all four corners of the entire universe, the breadth and the depth of it, and we can't follow. Then second, who has gathered the winds in his hands? The second question. Now the answer here is God.

You say, these are all God. We know that. Think back to the great plagues that were brought against Egypt. You know those stories? The water was turned to blood, then the plague of frogs, the plague of gnats, the plague of flies, the death of the livestock there in Egypt, the plague of boils and locusts and darkness, and then the last plague of the death of the first morn. But in all of these plagues, we see God's great power over nature. It's his. And then specifically how he controlled the wind, remember? Man may be able to predict the weather, but man can't control it. Only God can control the wind. Thought about the hurricanes.

I mean, we've had a few this year, have we not? We can predict those hurricanes, but we can't stop them. Isn't that right? And they can talk about climate change all they want, but they won't stop them. But then third, who has scooped up the oceans in their shirt or in their old-fashioned apron? Now the answer here is God. Now this is not just the lakes and the oceans. Now think about this. All the water in the universe, all of the water in the sky, on the earth, above the earth, under the earth, everything. Only God can scoop up the waters like a man would scoop up water in his garment.

I thought about when I was a kid, we'd take our shirt, pull it up, put it in our teeth, and put plums or pears or whatever in our shirts. I'm sure our moms didn't appreciate us stretching out our shirts. But think about all of the great floods. I mean every now and then there'll be some great flood and nothing can stop that. All of the technology, all of the attempts, and New Orleans couldn't stop the flood there when Katrina came. We know of great floods around the world. I think about the Mississippi River flood of 1929 flooded so much. And then fourth, who has laid the boundaries of the lands? Of course it's God.

It is only God who has established the land, their masses, and their boundaries. I think about the continents. We know our continents, do we not? Asia, Africa, North and South America, Antarctica, Europe. I mean we know our continents. I was doing a little reading today and there's this debate out there about a continent under water and all. I looked at that and I thought, I don't have time. I'll go back to that later. But listen, even though man may alter the earth, and man does, it is only God who can establish the boundaries of the lands. I've never been to Hawaii, but we know there are active volcanoes there.

And they literally have islands that are growing every day. Because the volcanoes are spewing ultimately earth. It becomes larger and larger. And I think about climate change. They talk about man destroying the earth, destroying the earth. Man can't destroy it. Man can mar it and pollute it and corrupt it. It is God who has laid out the boundaries of the lands. So notice this is a great contemplation. He is pondering some mighty awesome questions here. I think we have to step back and think about that. These questions are great and the answers are even greater. Because this is beyond man. These questions and the answers here are otherworldly.

And the four questions, there's only one answer. God. God is the only one that can do these things. But notice the fifth question. I didn't touch on it. Look at the end of verse 4. What is his name and what is his son's name? See the shift? It goes from talking about creation. Only God can do these things. And then he says, what is his name and what is his son's name? Surely you know. See, Auger goes one step further and this might surprise some of you. Now the idea here with this question, with this statement, with what is said here. The idea here is this. Who can really know such a great God described here?

Because the answer to all of these questions is God. Who can know such a great, powerful, incomprehensible, mysterious, omnipresent God? Who can know that God? No one. There is such a great mystery attached to God. And all that is described here in the verse, verse 4. But here we specifically see who this God is. Now we're on this side of the New Testament revelation. So who is this son? It is Jesus. This is Jesus. This is God's son, Jesus. And it is Jesus who shows us God's greatness. Anybody remember what John, the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 1, 2, and 3 says? All things were created by him and through him. Who? Jesus.

That's what John 1, 1, 2, and 3 says. All things were created by him and through him. So this oracle is about Jesus. Simply it was Jesus that was being described here. Jesus, and we know this great and mysterious God in and through his son, Jesus. Listen to John 4, Gospel of John, verses 7 and 8. Philip said to Jesus, "Lord..." It just kills me sometimes the disciples' reactions to Jesus. "Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us." Well, that was a lie because nothing was enough for them. It was more and more and more. And what does he say? "Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip?" What is he going to say?

"Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father?'" Now here I want to show you the emphasis here. You might say the emphasis is on this greatness. All these questions just scream greatness, but that's not the emphasis. The emphasis should be on who? God. The answer to all the questions is God. Lost man can ask what and why in these questions, in dealing with the creation, in all of the mysteries and wonders with the creation. And that lost man can answer many of those what and why questions. A lost man can even ponder the greatness of the creation and the greatness accurately and correctly.

But a man can only contemplate the greatness of God in creation when God reveals himself to that man beyond creation. The creation is evidence of God, but the Scriptures actually describe who God is. It is only from the Scriptures that we can understand the who behind the creation described here. And it is only from the Scriptures that we can understand who this Son is, and it is Jesus. It is only from the Scriptures that we can understand the Son in the creation and then in salvation. Now question, how should we view this great contemplation? This is a great pondering in the heart of this man. He's pondering these words, these questions.

He's pondering all of this. Who can do all this? He understood that it was God, yes. How should it affect us? Two ways. First, we should contemplate the greatness of God. We see the greatness of our God in creation, even though it's been affected by sin. Listen, folks, the hurricanes come and lost people are in fear and in panic, and we don't fear. We don't panic. Our Lord can hold back those winds. They're in his hands. And if they come through and blow every tree on our property, on our home, it's just everything. It's by God's divine plan and providence for our life.

But then second, we should contemplate the greatness of God in his Son Jesus. We see the greatness of God in his Son and the salvation that is provided through his Son. And so for us, we contemplate the greatness of his Son, and it always goes back to our salvation. It always goes back to how we came to faith in Christ. One of the joys and beauties I have is when I meet someone, and they will come right up tactfully, nicely, and they'll say, "Brother Chris, tell me how you came to faith in Christ." Some of you know one of the young men that's been visiting here. We just got to know him. Us emissions work in Peru, and it was a blessing to me.

He came up to me just talking, and said, "Brother Chris, how'd you come to faith in Christ?" And, "Oh, I'm telling you, I leapt for joy because what? I wanted to express how I have contemplated the greatness of not just the creation, but the greatness of his Son Jesus and how he saved me." You don't ever get over that greatness. You always are in awe. You contemplate that. You ponder that. Sometimes you just say, "Lord, why me?" So before I move to the conclusion, what's the opposite here? Remember the opposite of the lowliness was pride? The opposite here is the greatness of man.

You see, any time man moves away from the greatness of God in creation, which should take us to the greatness of God in salvation in his Son, if they move away from that, if they reject the creation, it ends up being the greatness of man. And listen, it ends up being a great humanity and the greatness of what man can do. What about the Tower of Babel? What was that all about? Let us build us a tower to heaven? God wasn't too happy about that either. Now, I want to close, and I want us to remember a few things here. We have this great oracle from God. This is truth, Scripture, his divine word, meant for all men.

But then we have the personal oracle from this man. I challenge you to read it and look for the man in the message. You see, look at the message from God, but the man in the message. But yet this rather unknown man, don't know anything about him. Everything I read said, "Really, the only thing we know is what we see here in chapter 30." It's kind of funny, the scholars I read, they'll argue about he, this, and that, and I'm like, "Don't worry about that. Take a step back and look. We have an unknown man with this great profession. And remember how would I ask you? Remember how I shared that we have this profession, and what would we say?

And remember, our profession should be more than how we've come to faith in Christ. And ultimately, it should be very similar, because we express great things that God is doing in our life in teaching us and even things we're struggling with. So, within your life, personal testimony, and who you are, do you possess this great lowliness? And do you have this contemplation, the greatness of God, the wonder of God, and ultimately the wonder of salvation in his Son Jesus? I remind you of what Matthew Henry said, and I'm paraphrasing.

He said, "The great sage, the great teacher here, before he could get to his Savior, he had to contemplate his great, great lowliness." So, what have we seen here? This sage, this prophet, is profession of faith, and it relates to us. Now, let me share with you how we'll proceed. We're going to look at some of the rest of the chapter. I really, in my notes, you know, I really have good intentions. To be honest with you, most of the time when I study, I start off with eight or ten verses, and it comes down to about two. I just know we don't have time. Next week, we're going to get into his prayer here, the word here.

I read some of those verses, the greatness of his word, this great prayer here, it just all fits together. We won't cover it all, but I hope this wets your appetite. And I'll be honest with you, I thought about other times I would want to preach through some of these things, teach through some of these things. So, I feel like this is some good stuff for us. I hope it's spoken to you.