In the sermon 'True Knowledge Humbles,' Peter Allison explores Proverbs 30:1-4, emphasizing that true knowledge stems from the fear of the Lord, not from human understanding or scientific endeavors. Allison underscores that the foundation of knowledge is rooted in a reverence for God, which results in humility. The sermon illustrates the limitations of human efforts to comprehend creation through science and mathematics, highlighting that such endeavors often lack foundational certainty without acknowledging divine instruction. Allison asserts that Agur's words are a prophetic utterance, reinforcing that knowledge and wisdom are ultimately found in the Word of God. The message stresses the importance of faith in understanding and applying God's truths, as human reasoning alone cannot grasp the fullness of creation. The sermon concludes with a call to live by God's Word, trusting in His wisdom and providence.

Please turn to Proverbs chapter 30. We'll be looking at the first four verses. Hear God's word. The words of Agur the son of Jacob his utterance, this man declared to Ithiel and Ucal, Since surely I am more stupid than any man, and do not have the understanding of a man, I neither learned wisdom nor have knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended into heaven or descended?

Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name and what is his son's name, if you know? Every word of God is pure.

He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words lest He rebuke you and you be found a liar. These two things I request of you. Deprive me not before I die. Remove falsehood and lies far from me.

Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me lest I be full and deny you and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. Do not malign a servant to his master lest he curse you and you be found guilty. There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother.

There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet it is not washed from its filthiness. There is a generation, oh, how lofty are their eyes, and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and whose fangs are like knives, to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men. The leech has two daughters, give and give. There are three things that are never satisfied.

Four never say enough. The grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water and the fire never says enough. The eye that mocks his father and scorns obedience to his mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out and the young eagles will eat it. There are three things which are too wonderful for me. Yea, four which I do not understand.

The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a virgin. May the Lord grant faith to believe His commandments and teach us good judgment and knowledge. Heavenly Father, your word is pure, refined seven times. And it is true when we ask that you would Grant us faith that what we hear this morning might be mixed with faith, and grant us, Lord, a new obedience through hearing your word today. Sanctify my lips, I pray, to speak the holy and true word in Jesus name, amen.

Well, no text in the book of Proverbs teaches that creation reveals wisdom. No text in the book of Proverbs teaches that creation reveals wisdom That's what dr. Bruce Waltke said in his commentary on Proverbs You see because according to Proverbs, the foundation of knowledge, which we call epistemology, is the fear of the Lord. The foundation of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. The foundation of knowledge is the fear of the Lord.

Now epistemology is a big word but it's a good one and it's one that we probably all should be familiar with. Because it refers to how we know the things that we know. What is the foundation of knowledge? Where do we go to learn? Where do we go to begin our learning?

What is the foundation of knowledge? You see, if the foundation of knowledge is science, and that word actually means knowledge, then to find knowledge we would go to the scientific method. But this section, the whole book of Proverbs, but this passage we want to look at this morning says something quite different. It says something quite different. It says that we don't have the foundation of knowledge in science or in creation or in us in any form.

This passage begins, this first verse, emphatically says that this is God's Word. It says it twice actually. And in our translations sometimes that gets a little bit lost. So, I want to spend a minute to point that out. Just how emphatically this first verse says that this is a prophetic utterance.

This is the Word of God. This is truth. And then just to give you an outline, he then proclaims how this foundation of knowledge is not with man, it's not with him. And then in verse 4, he looks at creation and sees that man can't find anything there either. The words of a guru, the son of Jika, is utterance.

Is utterance. And utterance is usually translated burden or oracle when it's used in the prophets. Now some would say, well this is Proverbs, it's not prophecy, and so they've used a different word, utterance, but by prophecy we simply mean the Word of God. This is the Word of God that Agur is about to, is writing. It's like where Peter says that no prophecy originates privately.

But holy men wrote as they were moved by God. And he's referring there not just to revelation or books about the future, he's referring to all of the Word of God. And he calls it prophecy. Isaiah uses this word, this same word that's translated utterance here, which literally means a burden. You can other places, this is the word simply for burden.

But Isaiah uses this to begin messages to all the nations. You remember the burden of Isaiah, or the burden of Babylon, or of Edom, and Egypt, and so on. That's the same word. This word is what begins the books of Nahum, of Habakkuk, of Malachi, and it opens two chapters in Zechariah. The burden.

This is a prophetic word. This is a word of God. And Agur is saying he's writing in the Spirit, as the Bible says in some places. I just look at, just to quote that one example from Malachi. Malachi begins, the burden of the Word of the Lord.

The burden of the Word of the Lord. The utterance, the oracle of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. You basically see this as saying the same thing. This is the burden of Agur to Ithiel and Ucal. People that we really don't know anything about.

Agur, he's the son of Jaca, and he had two disciples, Ithiel and Ucal. But nothing more is said in the Bible about him other than that he is here bringing to us the word of the Lord. Now, New King James says the next sentence, this man declared to Ithiel. But I'm not sure why it was translated that way. 365 times out of 376 times this word, they've translated a verb, It's actually a noun in the Hebrew.

And it's a prophetic utterance. It's what that is, prophetic utterance. 365 times out of 376 times, this word is used with Jehovah to refer to The word of God. Naum. Naum.

Naum Yehovah. The word of God. It's used in Jeremiah 23. So that leaves 11 other times. It's used in Jeremiah 23 to refer to the Word of God.

It's very obvious and clear in that text that its use there is referring to the Word of God. Six times it's used of Balaam and twice of David. In Numbers 24, it says of Balaam, then he took up his oracle and said, The utterance of Balaam, the son of Beor, the utterance of him who hears the words of God. The utterance of Balaam, the son of Beor. And that's how it's translated.

I think the way to see this is the in the utterance or the inspired utterance because that's what the word is in it's it's a word of God The inspired utterance of the man to Ithiel. And in the Hebrew, the way this is constructed, it's a definite article. It's the inspired utterance of the man to Ithiel. When it's used of David in 2 Samuel 23 it says, these are the last words of David, thus says David the son of Jesse. Literally, the prophetic utterance of David the son of Jesse.

The prophetic utterance of David, the son of Jesse. Thus says the man raised up on high. Again, literally the prophetic utterance of the man raised up on high, the anointed of God, the sweet psalmist of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spoke to me That's That everywhere in the Bible wherever this is used it is clearly a reference to the Word of God It's how prophets authenticated themselves as they came, declaring that they brought the word of God, the utterance of God, the prophetic utterance.

So the words of Agur, the son of Jaca, his utterance, his oracle, his burden, the inspired utterance, the man declared to Ethiel, to Ethiel and Yucal. So This is Agur coming and saying, thus says the Lord. This is the Word of God. And what does he... And he brought it to these two men.

And what is this word that he opens with? One, he says, I am more stupid than any man. As a man, he lacks righteousness. He is stupid or foolish. Now this word here, to be stupid or brutish, I think the King James translates it brutish, is to be like an animal and it's used in a negative sense to refer to people who are insensitive in the sense of not responding, not hearing the truth of God's Word.

But I don't think that's what he means in this case. He's not coming and saying, I'm an unbeliever, I'm a brutish. I think he's using it like Asaph describes in Psalm 73. Asaph, you remember in that Psalm, he is envious of the wicked because they seem to prosper. And he's asking, have I cleansed my life in vain?

I mean, I'm struggling to walk in the ways of the Lord and to do what's right. It doesn't seem like it's going well for me, but These wicked people, they seem like they're doing just fine. They're prospering just fine. And so he's envious of the wicked, who seem to do well compared to him as he's trying to obey God. And he doesn't see any benefit coming from it.

And he says, my feet had almost stumbled over this. I almost fell. I almost turned away from seeking to walk in the ways of the Lord. Until, he said, I went to the house of God. And then he understood.

And this is how he describes himself at that point. As he comes back to the house of God, he comes to the house of God, and understands now the latter end of these wicked people. He says, thus my heart was grieved, and I was vexed in my mind. Psalm 73 verse 21. I was so foolish and ignorant, He said.

I was like a beast before you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold me by my right hand." You see, what did the knowledge of the truth bring to Asaph? It brought to him the realization that he was foolish and ignorant and like a beast in terms of his understanding. When Isaiah stood in the presence of God, he cried out saying, Woe is me!

I am a man of unclean lips! Woe is me! That's the response of sinful people standing in the presence of a holy God. I am undone. When God questioned Job, remember Job who had wanted to have this audience with God so he could question God, he could challenge God's justice in his life.

When God came to Job and questioned him, remember Job's response, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand over my mouth. You see, the more we see the holiness of God and the righteousness of God, the more we are impressed about the corruption of our own heart that we are like brutes. Paul, you see this progression in Paul.

See, early in his apostolic writing he wrote to the Corinthians In first Corinthians for I am the least of the Apostles Who I'm not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. The least of the apostles. The apostles were the foundation of the church and He's saying I'm the least of them. But later writing from prison in Rome, maybe ten years later or so, he said to the Ephesians, to me who am the least of all the saints, This grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ." So Paul presumably is more sanctified. Now he's the least of the saints.

Then at the end of his life, As he's writing one of his later letters to his true son in the faith, Timothy, he has such a clear view of the holiness of God and of His own unworthiness as a person, in His own heart, that He told Timothy, this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. It's gone from being the least of the apostles to the least of the saints to the greatest of sinners. That's what the knowledge of God brings. Humility, true knowledge brings a sense of our own unworthiness and with it a sense of great humility. You see, He's not just saying that because he used to persecute Christians and carry them off in chains.

He's saying that is one who knows the Lord and has begun to see His great holiness. Our Guru goes on then, he says, I am more stupid, I'm more foolish than any man, And I do not have the understanding of a man. That word for understanding. And in the first chapter of Proverbs, there's about 16 or so different words to know. And they cover every aspect of epistemology, the foundation of knowledge.

And so this word here that's translated understanding is B'naw. And it refers to insight on the relationship of facts. We might call that critical thinking. How do things fit together so that we can take these facts that may be in separate silos in some sense and say, how do we put them together? How do they fit together to reach conclusions?

How do we fit together? So here's a great example that just happened this week, well recently, I don't know if it was exactly last week. I don't keep track of all the theories going around on the internet about what's happening in the Ukraine. But apparently there was a story that one of the reasons for the war over there was that the U.S., the Pentagon had secret biological warfare programs going on in laboratories over there. And of course everybody said, oh, that's just a big hoax, you know, and that's just not true.

And then in testimony by one of the cabinet officials, they expressed in Congress, expressed a concern about biological material in the Ukraine falling into the hands of the wrong people. And so people took those two, took that fact, that acknowledgement and said, oh, well that must be true. There must be military biological warfare labs over there. And I think that's an example, and I think the people that reach that conclusion from her testimony and the other information that's out there, such as all the pictures of labs over there, That's an example of critical thinking, of putting two facts together and coming to a conclusion. That's understanding, critical thinking, how the relationship of facts, how to put them together correctly.

We can hold all the pieces of a puzzle in our hand and not know how they fit together. We say that puzzle is unsolved even though we have all the pieces right in the box in front of us and even the picture of how they're supposed to go together. It takes understanding to be able to see how all those pieces relate together. That's the na. Rugar says, I don't have understanding of a man.

I don't have that ability to think critically and put these facts together to arrive at correct conclusions. He said that he lacks wisdom. Hukma. I think we talked a lot about that in the early parts of Proverbs. That's again just a noun.

That means wisdom. Wisdom is the skillful application of knowledge. You can have knowledge and not know what to do with it. You can know something, but not know how to apply what you know, to take actions based on what you know. That's the application of wisdom and that's what's being referred to here.

Hukma. You know, there's a story of, you know, that I'm sure you've heard of the massive marine diesel engine, you know, these engines that have the cylinders are, you know, many feet across and, you know, they are very, very powerful. They're bigger than this whole room, bigger, you know, the size of this building, type of diesel engine. And then on a startup, they couldn't get it working, right? It wasn't starting correctly.

So they hired an expert to come in who was an old retired man, and they brought him in because he worked all his life on these kinds of things and that's what you do when you get stuck you call the old people that know how it really works I've seen that happen many many times in the business I've worked in and they go to somebody that retired and say, hey, can you come back and help us figure something out? So this older gentleman comes in and he walks all the way around, looks and inspects everything, and takes goes to his little tool bag takes out a hammer taps at a couple plate at one place a couple times and it works and he they say well great what do we owe you ten thousand dollars what For one minute of work? And he says, well no, it's a dollar to do the work. It's $9, 999 to know where to tap. The application of knowledge.

The application. That's wisdom. And that kind of wisdom is only found in the Word of God. And lastly, he says, I neither learned wisdom nor have knowledge of the Holy One. The Aught.

Justified knowledge. Knowledge that is true. Because all knowledge is found in the Scriptures. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's not science.

And he goes into this in verse 4, who has ascended into heaven? Or descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fist? Who has bound the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth?

Zechariah says that it's the Lord who has laid the foundation of the earth, who has stretched out the heavens, and who has formed the spirit of man within him. It's God who does these things. And those are three questions. And there are other places in Scripture like this. Job is a famous place where God goes on for several chapters in this vein, asking Job, who's done these things?

They're all things that are summarized, I think, in those three things. Who's laid the foundation of the earth? We don't know. After 5, 000 years of study, we don't know the answer to that question. The best physicists today cannot answer that question.

We don't know. We can't explain it. Who has laid the foundation of the earth? It's more dogma than it is knowledge. Who has stretched out the heavens?

We don't know, we don't understand that. We can't really even see where they end. And who has formed the spirit of man within him? We can make all sorts of chemical reactions and synthesize all of the amino acids. But we can't make them alive.

We can't make a life. We can't breathe into the dust before us the breath of life. Because God alone understands these things. God alone can do them. And I'd like to illustrate just how we cannot lay the foundations of the earth with science by looking at math a minute.

People often think of math as maybe a neutral area. Okay, we can grant that history isn't neutral and we can grant, you know, that creation that's not neutral. But what about math? Isn't that sort of neutral? Isn't two plus two four for the pagan and the Christian alike?

Can't pagans do math? Can't they account for math? They shouldn't say do math, but can't they account for math as well as a Christian? And that actually, it's a surprising answer. Is a resounding no, they cannot.

See, one of the problems philosophical problems that mathematicians have is why the equations that they do on the blackboard and in their notebooks or computers now, why those equations mean anything in the physical world? Why is there a connection? Why can I say that 4 plus 2 is 6? That means if I have four apples and two apples together, I have six apples. Why does that math apply in the real world?

I mean, that's so obvious to us. We don't maybe even think about it. Of course it does. We assume it because it does. But why?

Why is the question? Why can we manipulate equations about gravity and make predictions and have a rocket ship go where we want it to go? Well, Morris Klein, who was a mathematician in the 20th century, wrote a book called Mathematics, The Loss of Certainty. Just the opposite of what you would expect from math. He said, It behooves us to learn why despite its uncertain foundations, they're uncertain to him, they're not to God.

And despite the conflicting theories of mathematicians, yes they do compete with the basis of math. And what does a number mean in these kinds of questions. They are debating that. Mathematicians, he says, despite the uncertain foundations and the conflicting theories of mathematicians, Mathematics has proved to be so incredibly effective. And he goes on to say in another book, the study of mathematics and its contributions to the sciences exposes a deep question.

He's not a Christian, right? He's writing this. He says, mathematics is man-made. It's not, but according to him it is. The concepts, the broad ideas, the logical standards, and the method of reasoning were fashioned by human beings.

Yet with this product of a fallible mind, man has surveyed spaces too vast for his imagination to encompass. And he has predicted how and shown how to control radio waves which none of our senses can perceive. And he has discovered particles too small to be seen by the most powerful microscopes. Cold symbols and formulas completely at the disposition of man have enabled him to get a portentous grip on the universe. Some explanation of this marvelous power is called for." End of quote.

Some explanation is called for. He has none. That's why he wrote the book The Loss of Certainty. He's wondering why does math work? Now, we're going to see in a minute that all of his assumptions there are wrong.

But let me quote one more mathematician by the name of Mario Salvatori who defined math this way. He said, math is a game in which the players set up their own rules and play with no other purpose than to play according to the rules. And a player may at any time change any rule. How would you like a game like that? You can change any rule in the game that you want.

Provided this change does not lead to contradictory rules. And since moreover mathematics may be played by a single individual, the player does not even need the consent of one or more partners to change a rule. This definition of math will come as a shock to all but the mathematical expert." See, he leaves no room for doubt there. To him, see, math is a construct of the human mind. And it's not connected to the physical world.

And Norman Campbell, a British physicist, says something very similar. He says, speaking of the physical world, Why do they predict? We return it once to the question we cannot avoid. The final answer that I must give is that I do not know, that nobody knows, and that probably nobody ever will know." End of quote. This is what Agur is saying as well, about human endeavor to discover knowledge and truth.

We can't. It's all of these non-Christian scientists that are honest enough to admit it. They can't. Mathematics to them is a game. It has no foundation other than one that we have invented and They have no answer for why it has any explanatory power.

But we know that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that God's word is truth. Your word is truth, Jesus said. And so all of the fundamental axioms of mathematics are revealed in the scriptures. That's how we know them. And mathematicians will tell you, Well, we can't prove these fundamental axioms of math.

We have to just assume them. See, they cannot account for the foundation of mathematics. The foundation is the fundamental axioms by which you operate in math, by which every other theorem is ever proved in math. It's basic things like addition, subtraction, identity, A equals A. These are the fundamental theorems in math that they cannot prove because they cannot lay the foundation of the earth.

They have no answer for it, but the Bible does. And every one of these theorems, these fundamental axioms of math, of science, of any other subject are in the Scriptures. And that's why mathematics describes the physical world, because God gave us the fundamental principles of mathematics in the Scriptures from which we can begin to build all the other things that are built. Using the principles of logic that are revealed in the Scripture as well. No matter what field you are in, anthropology, sociology, engineering, Physics, languages, all of the axioms, the fundamental axioms of every field of human endeavor are revealed in the scriptures.

Gravity, It's a providence of God. Who passed the law of gravity is a question I always like to ask my children. Who passed the law of gravity? And who enforces the law of gravity? Well, God did.

God passed the law and God enforces the law. And the fact that it's always happening all the time is a testimony to the faithfulness of God. Just how continuously God is operating in his world that when things happen like if I drop this book it it's because it's because God is personally involved in governing his creation and in everything that happens And We know that And we know that knowledge is based on faith. Knowledge is based on faith. That believing is seeing.

Not seeing is believing. And even somebody like Stephen Hawking, a man who to his dying day, as far as we know, realized that we live by faith. Science is based on faith. Science is based on faith. And he actually also realized that everything was ordained.

Now he didn't recognize it was ordained by God but he recognized that everything had to be ordained. Who has ascended into heaven? Who has gathered the wind in his fist, who has bounded the waters in a garment, who has established all the ends of the earth. What is His name? And what is His Son's name?

If you know. I hope this morning that we all know who is His name. His name is wonderful. His name is Jesus. His name is the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the mighty God, the everlasting Father.

His name means Jehovah saves. His son's name, Jesus the Messiah, Jehovah saves, the anointed one. It is in Him that we live and that we move and that we have our being. It is in Him that all knowledge and wisdom is hid. We can never find that knowledge, any knowledge in creation apart from the Word of God, apart from the Scriptures.

Seeking to study the creation apart from Jesus Christ, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, apart from His Word, leads only to ignorance and a loss of uncertainty, in the words of Morris Klein. Or a problem that nobody can figure out. A fundamental contradiction. You see, in Christ there is light. There is certainty, absolute certainty.

And there is truth. And all that happens around us, all of the things in the physical world that we study, that we get paid to know about. It's all the work of God. It's all His handiwork. It's all His personal work.

It's not like He has created something like a clock and then the natural laws take over. When we talk about natural laws of gravity, we are talking about nothing other than the providence of God. We're talking about the wisdom of God by which these things work. And we can know these things because they are revealed in the scriptures and we can know them with certainty. And one of the great debates of our day is, where did the earth come from?

Where did the earth come from? And how old is it? Again, this is not a question that has any answer if you look outside the scriptures. As some people cleverly were able to show from Richard Dawkins in an interview with him. You push back through all of the explanations and theories of unbelieving scientists about how the world came to being.

They all have to start with something. Something. And where did that something come from? And in being asked that question, Dawkins had to think a bit. And in the video I saw, he then said, well, it must have been from another universe, which is to completely beg the question.

God alone lays the foundation of the earth. It's not anything we can ever figure out or understand apart from the Word of God. And God told us where this world came from. In the beginning, God made it, spoke it into existence out of nothing. And the reason some of these things are so important is Because if we say that Genesis got it wrong, when it tells us about the creation of the earth and the foundation of marriage and families, and the social order that God created in them, then why wouldn't we wonder whether God got it wrong when he said that he rose from the dead and that he's coming again to judge the living and the dead as we profess this morning To give everlasting judgment to those who reject him but everlasting life Fellowship and communion with him to those who by faith believe in His name in the name of his son Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the certainty of the knowledge of your word that we can live by it and we can give our lives by it, knowing that you will raise us in the last day and that these eyes that the worms eat our flesh and destroy our bodies yet these eyes and not another will see you in your glory we ask Lord that you would give to us that simple faith that believes your word because you have said it and that you would give to us that simple faith that believes your word because you have said it. And that you would give to us a diligence to search out your scriptures and to, with diligence, apply them to this world that you have made, to the tasks and the callings that you have given to us, to subdue this creation, to bring it under your godly rule and dominion, to labor that your will might be done on earth as it is in heaven. Father, we ask that you would encourage us this morning with the truth of your word, that you would take away our doubts and our fears and establish us upon the rock that is Christ.

And that when, Lord, we are overwhelmed, we will cry out to You from the ends of the earth that You might lead us to the rock that is higher than us, to the one In whom is hid all wisdom and knowledge, who has laid the foundation of the earth, stretched out the heavens and formed the spirit within us. Or we praise you that you are the mighty God, the creator of heaven and earth, and that by the power of your word you spoke into existence that which wasn't, and that by the power of your word you called the deer to give birth, and by the power of your word you sent forth the wind, the lightning, the earthquakes, but also Lord, you sent forth the beauty of the gospel and its power to save and to take what is broken and to make it whole and to take what is shrouded in darkness and to make it shine reflecting light. To take what is wracked with pain, and to bring comfort and healing, both to our bodies and to our souls, and to our minds, to our emotions, to our hearts, to our homes, to our conscience.

Father, we ask that you might continue this work in us through Jesus Christ. Amen.