In the sermon titled 'Inevitable Consequences of Pride,' Peter Allison explores the deep and multifaceted teachings found in Proverbs 30:32-33, emphasizing the grave outcomes pride can lead to, such as strife and wrath. Allison discusses the Hebrew concept of a 'perfective of resolve,' explaining that the scripture may not refer to past actions but rather to intentions or resolutions of the heart. He uses biblical examples, including the stories of David and Saul, to illustrate how pride manifests and its destructive nature. The sermon underscores the importance of humility and the necessity of self-awareness to curb prideful tendencies. Allison advises believers to metaphorically 'put a hand over their mouths' to prevent prideful thoughts from manifesting into actions, aligning with the teachings of Agur to actively restrain and mortify prideful inclinations. He concludes by reminding the congregation that all gifts and blessings are from God, and thus, there is no room for personal boasting.

Please turn in your scriptures to Proverbs chapter 30 Verse 32. If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth. For as the churning of milk produces butter, and ringing the nose produces blood, so the forcing of wrath produces strife. May Jehovah deal with us according to His mercy and teach us His statutes. Almighty Heavenly Father, we lift our hearts to you and ask that you would teach us in the school of Christ.

We ask for faith to believe your word and I ask that you would sanctify my lips to proclaim your word and preserve me from error. In Jesus name, amen. These are the last words of Agur. This chapter concludes Agur's prophecy that he or his sayings, the words that he began in verse 1 and each Everything that he has said has been, we've seen, have been deep, deep waters. These Proverbs have been very succinct and compact, but there is so much in them and this closing proverb is no exception.

It's not as obvious as it seems on the face of it. The... But I think this deals with the inevitable consequences of pride. The inevitable consequences of pride. If you have been foolish, if you have been foolish, that's the New King James version and it translates that as something that is completed in the past if you have been meaning you've already been foolish But following the Hebrew and the Hebrew scholarship of Bruce Walkie, I think this should be translated if you will be foolish in exalting yourself.

In other words, it's an expression of resolve. It's an expression of resolve, what you are intending to do. Now, that's a change, and I want to justify that. So we're going to dig a little bit into what we ordinarily don't get into, which is grammar, because I don't want you to just take my word for it that that's what it should be saying. I think it's significant to putting these two verses together, And so I want to demonstrate this in a little bit of length.

I should say I want to demonstrate it in another passage that uses identical construction, and that is Ruth. Ruth chapter four, and I'm going to turn there rather than just read it out of my notes. Ruth chapter four, you remember the story of Ruth, Naomi had with her husband and her sons and their wives, her sons had gone to the land of Moab and because of a famine and she has come back now and Ruth has won the attention of Boaz in a righteous way and Boaz is her kinsman redeemer. So Boaz is going to buy the land that belongs to Naomi and to Ruth as their kinsmen redeemer because Ruth's husband died with no children. Naomi's husband is dead.

And so in verse 3 we read, Boaz went to the city gates and he took ten men there and had them sit down. He went to basically the court. And then he said in verse 3 to a closer relative, one closer than him, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, sold the piece of land which belonged to our brother Eliminac. Now notice that's in the past. If you read that you would think Naomi has already sold the land.

It's the exact same construct, but watch what happens. It sounds like she's already sold the land, and he's reporting something that's history. But Boaz begins to explain to this one relative that's closer than he is. And he said, I thought to, well, he asked them, sit down here, and the relative sat down and then he says, will you buy this back? Or he says, I thought to inform you saying, buy it back in the presence of the inhabitants and the elders.

But he says, if you will redeem it, then redeem it. But if you won't redeem it, then tell me so that I may know. And the man said, well, I'll redeem it. And then Moses said, well, on the day that you buy the field from Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to perpetuate the name of the dead through this inheritance. So He says, in the day that you buy it from Naomi.

That makes it clear that Naomi hadn't sold it yet. Because he's talking about when you buy it. He said In verse 5, on the day that you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth and Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance. So what Boaz meant in that first sentence was that Naomi had resolved, she had purposed to sell the land. That was what had to happen for there to be a kinsman redeemer.

There were no male descendants. There needed to be somebody to step in to redeem that land. And so you know the story how when this close relative learns that he also has to marry Ruth, then he says, no, the deal's off. That would mess up my inheritance and he didn't want to do that, which was his right, but he was the one whose sandal had been removed. And so in verse 9 then, we see that Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses that this day, that day that they were sitting there, that I have bought all that was a limanlex and all that was chileans and malans from the hand of Naomi.

This day, he says, I am buying this from a limelac, everything that was a limelac and kilions and melons. This day I'm doing it. So when he said she had sold it earlier, that was what we call a perfective of resolve. It was what she intended to do, it was what she was resolved and committed to do, but it hadn't actually happened yet. There are other examples in the Bible of this same construct, interestingly, another one dealing with the selling of land.

In Genesis 23, remember when Abraham bought the field from Ephron to bury Sarah. You have that exact same thing where they used the past tense to refer to something that hasn't happened yet. Because it was what they were intending to do. It's like a contract to buy something that isn't going to happen. The sale is going to happen in the future.

It's a perfect of resolve. It's not yet happened. And that's, I believe, what we have here in verse 32. If you have been foolish, meaning if you will be foolish, if you've resolved or purposed to do something foolish, And then it says, if you are planning, if you will, to be foolish, if you have purpose, resolved to do something foolish, and the word for foolish here carries the sense of disgrace, something that's shameful, something that's inappropriate. It's the verb form of the word nabal.

We've found that word before as a noun. It's remember Abigail's first husband Nabal. Remember she made a play on that as he's a fool. He's acting like a fool. That's his name.

He is a fool. It's the same word here. It has to do with doing something that's disgraceful. So if you will be foolish, in the sense of being disgraced or being an outcast, if you're going to do something that's foolish, in exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil. And I think that actually should be and.

The word is and. In the Hebrew the word is and. And if you have a Geneva Bible, they translate this and. That's the word and. So if you have resolved to disgrace yourself by exalting yourself and if you have planned evil.

I think the reason that so many translations change this and to or is because they see the first clause as completed action then it doesn't make sense to say and if you're planning something because if you've already done it why would you be planning it but If you see this as a resolve, a statement of resolve, then it makes perfect sense. If you have resolved to do foolishly by exalting yourself and scheming to devise evil. If you have resolved to disgrace yourself by exalting yourself and if you have planned evil. You see those two then fit very well together because if you have resolved to disgrace yourself, this proverb is saying you've planned to do evil. This is, then put a hand over your mouth.

Put a hand over your mouth. This is a sign of retraction, a sign of admission, of a miyakopa, a sign that we've said something inappropriate. This is where the face palm comes, or the face palm icon comes from, this putting a hand over our mouth. You see, we still do it today. I still see people that do that.

When they realize they said something wrong or we're about to say something wrong, what do we do? We want to put a hand over our mouth. We want to stop our mouth. We say, oops, oops, I shouldn't have said that. And that's what the Guru is saying.

Put a hand over your mouth, literally and figuratively. Put a hand over your mouth. Shut that thought up. Mortify that idea. And this is what Job did, right?

Remember when he realized that he had spoken rashly and foolishly about God, you know, behold I am vile. Job said, what shall I answer you? I lay my hand over my mouth. I've spoken too soon, Job said. See, a proud heart opens its mouth to justify itself instead of putting its hand over its mouth in self-abasement.

But Agur is saying, right when that thought of exalting ourself comes to our mind, that's the time to put a hand over our mouth, to recognize that this is pride and to stop. And a Guru now gives us the reason, in the next verse, why we ought to put a hand over our mouth when we realize that we have thought in a way that's proud. Four. Four. This is why you're doing it.

Because, if you will, because as the churning of milk produces butter, as the ringing of the nose produces blood, so the forcing of wrath produces strife. In Hebrew, those three verbs are all the exact same verb. Churning, ringing, and forcing are all the same word, and they literally mean Squeezing. So just as squeezing milk, ringing, squeezing, ringing. Just as squeezing milk produces butter, squeezing noses produces blood, squeezing wrath produces strife, forcing wrath.

Provocation. It's an inevitable consequence. If you, I don't know how many, if you have ever had a cow or a goat and you get, you've milked them and you get the cream, then you've probably experimented with making butter. We used to do it when I was growing up. I don't think we've done it.

Well, we have done it a few times since. But you take a jar half full of cream, you let it warm up a little bit, and then you start shaking it. And eventually, all of a sudden, that cream turns into butter. It's inevitable. Sometimes you have to do it a little bit longer than others, but inevitably it happens.

Same with wringing a nose. You wring it hard enough or long enough, squeeze it, it will produce blood, it bleeds. And the Guru is saying it's the same thing with the forcing of wrath. But these are synthetic proverbs, right? This is a, this actually is a synthetic proverb.

And a synthetic proverb, if you remember way back, I don't know how many years ago it's been now when we started the book of proverbs, we looked at this, but a synthetic proverb is one where the next line restates what the first line said with different words. It either restates it or it adds to it in some way. It fills it out. It completes the thought. It adds another nuance to it.

A synthetic proverb, because it builds. You know, other proverbs are contrasting proverbs. If you do this, well this is the way of the fool but this is the way of the wise. That's a contrast. This is a synthetic proverb where each, so we see each line interprets or explains the previous one or adds to it in some way.

And so if you look at this, if you have been foolish in exalting yourself, it's clearly yourself there it's it's clearly saying that exalting oneself is foolish or it's disgraceful or if you have divide or and if you have devised evil. There is equating this purposing to exalt ourself with devising of evil. It's saying when we think in our hearts something about exalting ourself, then we are devising evil. And just like ringing cream produces butter, and ringing noses produces blood, so forcing of wrath. So this is connecting pride, expression of pride, is forcing of wrath.

And the forcing of wrath produces strife. There is the connection. It goes from thinking proud of exalting ourself, and planning, purposing, to strife. It makes this connection for us between the purposing of exalting ourself, the thoughts, the scheming, the devising needs ultimately to strife. Exalting oneself is disgraceful.

It is foolish because a man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor. That's just the previous chapter, a few verses earlier. A man's pride brings him below, but the humble in spirit will retain honor. Remember David had a moment of pride. He looked upon his nation.

He was a mighty warrior. He says in the Psalms that God taught his fingers to make war. We never read of him losing a battle, I don't believe. Did he ever lost a battle? Every time he went to war, he won.

So that people quit fighting him. The Syrians, they gave up. He always won. They just said it's better to be his servant and pay tribute to him. David actually became a very wealthy man.

When you look at the preparations that he made for the temple, there was tons, three tons of gold that David collected for the temple. And 37 tons of silver that he collected for the temple. That's a lot of money, even today. Even today, if you just take the price of gold and convert that tons of gold it's hundreds of billions of dollars the richest it's more than the richest people in the world today could put together David was a mighty man and he became proud he thinking about that and he said I'm going to number Israel. And Joab said I don't think that's a good idea David.

And David said, David didn't listen to him. That's another sign of pride. David didn't listen to Joab. He said, go number him. So the thing was distasteful to Joab.

He went and did it but he didn't actually finish it. And when he came back and reported the number, then David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. David said, I've sinned. Where was the sin in counting the people? Many times God had commanded the Israelites to be counted.

Certainly isn't it in the prerogative of a king to number his people? Well, David's heart condemned him because he knew he had done it out of a desire to exalt himself, out of a desire to know how many people were in his mighty army that was essentially undefeated. And God, you remember the story how God brought him under judgment, and the people as well. Because God had moved, God was angry with Israel and he moved David against them. Or Nebuchadnezzar, you remember how he's looking out one day over his city and thinking to himself, look at this vast place that I've built with my hands.

Thinking proud thoughts. It was just his thought. And as a result he lost his mind. He went insane. He had to eat grass like an animal.

His fingernails grew long until he learned that God alone is sovereign. See, our pride does bring us low, but even just thinking, just thinking to exalt ourself is the sin of pride. And isn't that so easy to do? So easy to do. I remember once a number of years ago I was working with a colleague, he and I, and he told some story and I told a story, I told another story And I was thinking at the time, well, he's told a story, I'll tell a story too.

And as soon as I was done telling my story, he came back and said, you always have to one up everybody. And My heart was immediately stricken. He was right. He was right. Why did I tell that story?

Just so I could look better? Just look good? It's pride. And as soon as he said that, I realized He's right. I said, thank you.

You're right. I'm sorry. Why do we say the words that we say? Why do we post the story on Facebook or post the picture on Facebook? What is our motive in posting that?

Is it that we, that others might see what we are? Maybe we post something that doesn't very complimentary because we want others to know how transparent we are. And they go, wow, they're so transparent. You see, pride is so very, very deceitful. We can think we're acting humbly, but we're only acting humbly so that others will see how humble we are and exalt ourselves.

You see, we're really scheming to exalt ourselves. Or the things that we say. Why do we say the Lord's convicted me about this too? Why did I just say that? How did it edify?

Sometimes it is edifying, But maybe the motive in there was mixed. I want to exalt myself. I want to look good. I want to look like I know something. I want to contribute to this conversation.

Or I want to see people to see something about me. Not saying anything can be motivated by pride as well. Because we think it's the scheming in our heart. Why are we not saying anything? Well, we don't want to seem proud.

We want to look good in other people's eyes by not being proud. And so we don't say something when we should be offering to do something or saying that we know something. If God has given you a gift and that gift is in a need at that moment, it's not wrong to say, I can do that. I can do that by the grace of God and not be just silent or praying right you ever feel anxiety in your prayer because you wonder how other people are thinking of you when you pray. You want them to think well of you.

Those are all proud thoughts. Those are the scheming, this is what this is talking about, the scheming of pride. The scheming to do evil. Because pride is a sin. It's a great sin.

It's an insidious sin. We may not even realize that we have it. We may think in our pride that we are being humble when the reason for it is scheming, to exalt ourselves scheming, to devise evil. Pride forces wrath. Pride forces wrath.

Remember, Saul's pride forced him to wrath. David, remember, had been taken from being a shepherd and brought into Saul's court. And he had killed Goliath as a young lad. And David went out wherever Saul had sent him, and he behaved wisely. And so David, Saul set him over the men of war.

He was a captain of a thousand, as a young man. He was accepted in the sight of all the people. And to Saul's servants, David was accepted. He was pleasing, gifted, beautiful, and the right way handsome, man. He was everything people would want in a young man.

And it happened as they were coming home from some battle when David had returned from the slaughter of the Philistines. That the women had come out of the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines and with joy and with musical instruments. They rejoicing at the victories that Saul and David have won over the Philistines, these enemies that for many years remember had troubled them and oppressed them. It made life difficult for them and taxed them. And here they're winning victories over them now.

And the woman sang as they danced and they said, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. Remember what happened? Saul became angry. Where did that anger came from? It was pride within him.

He was proud. And one sign of pride is that we don't like it when other people are exalted and we aren't. When other people are praised and we aren't. Or even if other people are praised more than we are praised. Pride isn't happy with that.

So that's one way to know when when there's pride. Are you upset? Is it irritating to you when somebody else is praised, especially if they're being praised for work you did? Is that irritating? If it is, it's pride.

It's pride. Saul was proud. And so when David was praised more than he was, it produced wrath. Pride forces wrath. David was angry.

Their saying displeased him. They ascribed to David, they have ascribed to David ten thousands and to me they have ascribed only thousands he said. Now what more can he have but the kingdom? And you Remember what happened after that? Saul was set against David.

He was angry and there was war And he devised ways to get at David. He thought, well, he had promised his daughter in marriage to David. But then he came up with the idea of a dowry that he thought would get David killed. It didn't happen that way. David came back with the dowry.

But Saul was continually trying to devise ways to kill him. And finally in his anger he simply threw a spear at him to pin him against the wall. See that's this fourth point. The forcing of wrath, pride forces wrath and the forcing of wrath inevitably brings strife. It's inevitable.

Just like churning butter or punching a nose, churning milk produces butter, punching a nose produces blood. The forcing of wrath produces strife. An angry man, the Proverbs says, stirs up strife. And a furious man abounds in transgression. So Saul eyed David from that day forward.

And it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came on Saul and He prophesied inside the house so David played music as at other times, but there was a spear in his hand. And Saul cast the spear for he said, I will pin David to the wall. But David escaped. And a proud man hears another person praise, he feels that he has been wronged. Because the proud man believes that that praise should have come to him.

Pride you could say is the overestimation of our self. A proud man is never grateful Because he never thinks he's getting everything that he deserves to get. A humble person is grateful when they get far less than what they thought to get. Pride is such a choking weed that no, nothing can grow by it. Pride is such a choking weed that no, nothing can grow by it.

Pride is such a choking weed that nothing else can grow by it. Certainly The fruit of the Spirit cannot grow by pride. Love is killed. Joy is killed. Peace is killed.

Because when you're always scheming for how to exalt yourself in ways other people won't see and won't know, there is no peace. Patience is killed. Gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, self-control, These things are killed. They don't grow. Pride chokes all those fruits because God opposes the proud but He gives grace to the humble.

You see these fruits flow are the fruits of the Spirit. They come by grace, they're not what we can do. And so where there's pride, God opposes that. There's no grace there, There's no fruit. It's all choked out.

Pride drives away contentment. Pride drives away contentment. Godliness with contentment is great gain. A proud person is never content because they're never satisfied with what they have, with their exaltation. Because pride is wanting more.

Pride is wanting to be exalted. It's scheming evil. How do I exalt myself? What's the next post going to say? What's the next thing I'm going to say?

What's the next thing I'm going to do so that I can look better without appearing to be proud? Without appearing to look better, what's the next thing I can say? And so all of these fears and discontentment flow, pour in. You know, if you're not satisfied with where you are in your life, if life feels just dissatisfying, and you feel like you're missing something, maybe look, examine yourself for pride. Are you not getting all that you think you deserve?

God does very little with those who love their lives and their reputations. We're going to follow the Lord. We have to be willing to sacrifice our reputations. We have to be willing to let people say whatever they're going to say about us without being anxious, without being upset, without having to have justice done to us, for us. God does very little with those who love their lives or their reputation.

If we're going to serve Christ, we have to be willing to sacrifice our life, to lay down our life, to lay down our reputations, to lay down all the things that our pride wants us to have. Paul told the Galatians that if anyone thinks he is something, he is nothing. If anyone thinks that he is something, he is nothing. It's so easy for us to think that we're something, right? The Lord gives us an ability to do something.

And we become somewhat skilled at it. And we begin to think we're pretty good at this. We're pretty good at it. Or he blesses us with wealth. And what's our temptation to think, Oh, look at the wealth that he's blessed me with more than somebody else because I've worked harder.

Pride is so insidious. It's so easy. I find it all the time. It's coming up. And a Guru says, It's when those thoughts come, those self-exalting thoughts, Put your hand over your mouth.

Don't let it escape out of your mouth Mortify that pride because it's better. It's better to mortify it before it ever escapes your mouth before you ever say anything before you ever do anything to act on it put your hand over your mouth And ask the Lord to humble you and to humble me and pray that He might be exalted and not us in what we're doing. Even as we use His gifts that He's given us. Even as we live in great wealth that he's given us that he's blessed us Deuteronomy reminds us it's it's not our ability that has enabled us to get that wealth it's the Lord's gift what who are what have we done That we have any reason to boast? We can do nothing.

We can do nothing. Apart from God. You can do nothing without me, Jesus says. And that means everything. That means you can't sit, you can't breathe, you can't eat, You can't go to work every day unless the Lord enables you, unless he enables us, unless he strengthens us and equips us and provides for us.

Everything that we have, everything comes from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning, everything we have. So there is no reason, there is no reason to boast in us. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your example that you, the King above all other kings and the Lord of Lords Should veil your heavenly glory and majesty To come to earth and to live under the law to live under less than perfect parents Who didn't always get it right and yet you always obeyed without sin. To live under the constraints and the miseries of this life, You humbled yourself to be a servant.

You humbled yourself even to give up your life and your reputation to be crucified among among thieves because you loved us and you provided a sacrifice for us. Lord, may that mind be in us as well. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.