It is my privilege and joy to
be here with you all, and thank you for inviting me. Joe, thank
you, and Walter. Paul, where's Paul and Paul?
There they are. He's over in the east wing. Thank
you, he is in the east wing. Thank you all for being so kind
to put me up. It's been such a blessing to
have Emily down in Florida. We're thankful for that. I want to try to bring a message
this morning from Proverbs chapter 30 if you'd like to turn with
me there in your Bibles. Proverbs chapter 30. I've titled this message Things Too
Wonderful. Things Too Wonderful. And our
text will be found in Proverbs chapter 30, beginning at verse
18. There are three things which
are too wonderful for me, yea, four, which I know not. The way
of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon the rock, the
way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man
with a maid. And we know that in the volume
of the book, it is written of Christ. This book is God's word
which reveals to us God's purpose in saving his people in the glorious
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we read verses like
this, we know he's not talking about eagles. We know he's not
talking about ships. And we are to compare scripture
to scripture and the spiritual to the spiritual to understand
God's word as it relates to the gospel of God's free grace in
Christ. And so that's what I want us
to do this morning. I want us to just compare some verses of
God's word to see what it is that that the writer of Proverbs
30 is speaking of when he says, these things are too wonderful
for me. He's not talking about natural
things. He's talking about spiritual things. And truth is, all of
the gospel is too wonderful for us. Paul said in Philippians
chapter four, he said, be careful for nothing, but in all things
by prayer and supplication, let your requests be known unto God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will keep your
heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. I used to think that that
verse meant that that the peace of God could not be understood.
But the word surpasseth means is better than. It means it is
exalted above. And what the Lord is telling
us here is in all of our attempts to try to control our circumstances
through our own understanding, God gives us a peace to rest
in the revelation of Christ that is better than understanding.
exceeds any understanding. David said in Psalm 139, he said,
such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Too wonderful for me. And in Romans chapter 11, verse
39, oh, the depths of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God,
how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways are past finding
out. Faith is not understanding, faith
is believing. And truth be known, we don't
understand anything. The glory of God and his gospel
are past finding out, unsearchable, too wonderful for us. And yet
we rest the hope of our immortal soul on things that we don't
comprehend, we can't comprehend. Because God has given us faith
to believe what he said. Now these four things that Solomon's
speaking about here in the Proverbs, when he says there's four things,
notice with me if you will again in verse 19. of the eagle in the air, the way of the serpent upon a
rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and a way of
a man with a maid. I want us to see that what he's
speaking of here is faith and substitution and sanctification
and regeneration. That's what he's talking about. How do we know that? Well, we
know that from the revelation that God's given us and the rest
of his word. The way of the eagle in the air is too wonderful for
me to understand. How can we understand how it
is that some hear the gospel and are brought to believe every
word of it and others hear it and reject it, don't believe
it? How can we understand this? People will say, when we speak
to them about particular redemption or about irresistible grace,
that that's not fair. Everybody should have a chance.
And the child of God says, I don't understand why God would call
me out. Why would he give me ears to
hear? Why would he give me eyes to see? It's too wonderful for
me, the way of the eagle in the air. Isaiah chapter 40 verse
31 says that they that wait upon the Lord, they that believe on
the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary
and walk and not faint. The eagle is mentioned many times
in the Bible. In the book of Revelation chapter
12, Scripture speaks of the church as a woman who is fled into the
wilderness to a place that God has prepared for her. And it's
a picture of God's people in the wilderness of this world,
this dry and thirsty land, and how God has provided a place
for her where she can be fed in the wilderness. And that's
where we are right now. And he goes on to say in Revelation
chapter 12 verse 14, and was given to her two wings of a great
eagle that she might fly into the wilderness and there be nourished. What are the two wings of the
great eagle? The way of the eagle in the air is a reference to
the ministry of the Holy Spirit using the Word of God to bring
the children of God to faith in Christ. So the two wings,
the two great wings are the Spirit of God and the Word of God. Apart
from which, there will be no faith. Men will hear the Word
of God. Without the Spirit of God, you
remember, when Ezekiel was preaching to that valley of dry bones.
And the Lord said to the prophet, he said, son of man, can these
bones live? And what did Ezekiel say? He said, Lord, thou knowest.
If they're gonna live, you're gonna have to make them live.
Nothing I can do about it. I mean, these are sun-bleached,
dried bones. And God goes on to tell us these
bones are the whole house of Israel. So this is the people
of God who have been, it's a picture of a battlefield where men have
waged war, and this is the losing battle, and that's exactly what
we did when we raised our fists in our father Adam against God
in disobedience, and the wages of sin is death. And we died. We died in our father Adam. He's not just our federal head,
he's our seminal head. We were in the loins of our father
Adam when he disobeyed God, and we were charged with the same
sin that he was charged with, and come into this world as sinners,
dead sinners, estranged from God, just like those dry bones. And the Lord told Ezekiel, he
said, prophesy to them. And he began to preach the word
of God to them. And the bones began to come together, but there
was still no life in them. And so the Lord said to the prophet,
he said, prophesy to the wind. And we know that the wind is
a picture of the Holy Spirit. The Lord told Nicodemus that.
He said, the Spirit is like the wind. And he listeth whithersoever
he wills. You don't know where he's coming
from or where he's going, but if he doesn't blow your way,
there's not gonna be any life. And it wasn't until the Spirit
of God came and bless the word of God. And that's what we hope
for every time we come together and every time we look to God's
word. We pray and hope that the spirit of God will be pleased
to bless the word of God to the hearts of God's people that Christ
might be exalted and that we might be saved. Those are the
two great wings of the eagle that the Lord has provided in
the wilderness for his church. And that's what the writer of
Proverbs is speaking of when he says, this is too wonderful
for me. This is a miracle of grace that the Spirit of God
would come and that he would enlighten the eyes of our understanding
and that he would give us faith to believe and that we would
bow and rejoice in those things that the Lord has revealed in
his word about the Lord Jesus Christ. That a dead sinner would
be brought to faith as an eagle in the air. through the word
of God and the spirit of God. Turn to me, if you will, back
just a few pages to the book of Job. Let me show you another
passage. You remember Elihu, is the gospel
preacher in the book of Job and Job is justifying himself. He even says at one point, he
says, if I could find God, I would bring my case before him and
I would fill my mouth with arguments. And Elihu became angry because
Job justified himself. And then the Lord began to speak.
And the Lord said, who is this that darkens my counsel without
knowledge? Job, brace yourself like a man
and I'm gonna ask you a few questions. And the Lord begins to interrogate
Job. And at the end of that interrogation, you remember what Job said, oh
behold, behold, the Lord has revealed himself to me now. I
see something I've never seen before. Behold, I am vile. He said I had spoken without
knowledge, but I now repent in dust and ashes. That's the spirit
of God. That's the great eagle. And look
what the Lord, one of these interrogations that the Lord gives to Job is
found in Job chapter 39 at verse, I'm sorry, I'm in Psalm 39, I
better move back, Job 39. at verse 27, doth the eagle mount
up at thy command and make her nest on high? Are you going to
make this happen? Are you going to be able to make
the word of God come alive to you? Are you going to be able
to bless God's word with your knowledge and with your will?
No, no. She dwelleth and abideth on the
rock. Now that's a rock that's higher
than us. That's the rock of ages. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's where the Spirit of God comes from. The Lord said,
it's expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the
Comforter will not come. But when he comes, when he comes,
what's he gonna do? He's gonna convict the world
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because
they believe not on me. That's the root of all sin, is
unbelief. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous one, seated at the right hand of the majesty
on high, and of judgment because the prince of this world has
been judged. What the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's
cross was to destroy the works of the devil and deliver his
people from his bondage and accomplish their salvation. And that's what
the Lord's saying here. We're just comparing Scripture
to Scripture. When the writer of Proverbs says, the way of
the eagle in the air is too wonderful for me, he's talking about this
miracle of faith, ministered by the Spirit of God and the
Word of God, something that you and I are not capable of. For
by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
your faith is not of you. It's a gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. If the Lord doesn't give me faith,
I won't have faith. If he doesn't bless his word
by the power of his spirit, I won't believe and I won't see. This
is too wonderful for me. I can't understand it. It's beyond
my comprehension. Lord, I'm completely dependent
upon you. Look what he says. She dwelleth
and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, the strong
place. Oh, that's that rock on which
we fall and are broken. That's the rock, that's the stone
which the builders rejected and God has made to be the head of
the corner. Upon this rock, the Lord told
Peter, I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. From thence she seeketh the prey,
and her eyes beholdeth afar off. Oh, we can't see the Lord, he
can see. I understand that eagles have
incredible vision. I mean, I don't know how they
determined it, but they say it's eight times better than our,
eight times better than our vision. They can be way up in the air
and see their prey. There's the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. He knows where each one of his
children are, He knows how to get the gospel to them and when
to get the gospel to them. As Paul said, when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb, call me by his
grace to reveal Christ in me. It happens at the pleasure of
God's will. That's what the Lord's saying
to Moses. He's not talking about a physical eagle and a physical
rock. He's talking about the work of
the spirit of God and the word of God bringing faith to his
people. Her young ones also suck up blood,
and where the slain are, there is she. There we are. Except you drink of my blood
and eat of my flesh, you have no life in you. For my blood
is drink indeed. It's the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ that covers our sins in the very sight of God Almighty.
God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Oh, we suck
up that blood, and where the dead is, where we see the death,
burial, and resurrection, Christ and him crucified, there is she. There's the faith. There's no
faith apart from the preaching of the gospel. The eagle in the air is too wonderful
for me. And that's talking of the miracle
of faith. Now the second thing, as Solomon
says in Proverbs chapter 30, notice what he says in verse
19. The way of the eagle in the air
is too wonderful for me, and the way of the serpent upon the
rock, or upon a rock. Here he's speaking of substitution. We know who the serpent is. Serpent
is Satan, the father of lies. He's the one that came to the
garden and tempted Eve with doubts and asked, you know, did God
really say that if you eat of this, you shall not surely die?
And he outright denies the very word of God. And when the children
of Israel were in the wilderness and they were being bitten and
dying by fiery serpents, the Lord told Moses, you make a serpent
of brass and you put it upon a pole and you raise it up above
the congregation and anyone that looks to that serpent will live.
You know what that's a picture of? That's Christ Jesus the Lord
bearing our sins on Calvary's cross. All the sins of all of
God's people were laid on Him. He bore them in His body upon
the cross, suffered the full wrath and judgment of God in
order to satisfy justice and put our sins away. And that's
why the scripture says, except as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. He had
to be suspended between heaven and hell. He's the only one,
he's the only one that can touch man and not be defiled and touch
God and not be destroyed. He's the God-man, he's the mediator. He's the sin-bearer, he's our
substitute. And this is what, I said Solomon,
because Solomon wrote most of Proverbs, but actually the 30th
chapter of Proverbs is ascribed to a man by the name of Agur.
And that's what Edgar's speaking of here. He's saying the way
of the serpent upon the rock. And we know who the rock is.
How could it be? How could it be that God would
make him to be sin who knew no sin? How could it be that all
the sins All the shame and all the guilt and all the judgment
of every sin of every one of God's people could be placed
on Christ and he could bear them all. And put them away by the
sacrifice of himself once and for all. How could it be? This
is too wonderful for me. It's substitution. I can't comprehend
this. Here's the glorious hope that
we have, brethren. The peace of God is better than
understanding. Though these things be too wonderful
for us, it's not for us to understand. It's for us to believe. This
is God doing business with God. We can't begin to comprehend
what took place on Calvary's cross. How can we go back in
our minds to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is the
lamb slain before the foundation of the world and in the covenant
of grace and eternity past that Christ bore those sins in his
body then. And that he was fulfilling on
Calvary's cross what he had promised his father to do in the covenant
of grace and that God has always seen him as our substitute. that God's people have never
been viewed by God outside of Christ. They've always been found
in Him. This is too wonderful for me.
This is eternal matters. This is infinite matters. These
are holy matters that we can't begin to comprehend, but why
do we believe them? Because God said so. And because
God gave us hearts to believe. Salvation is by faith in Christ. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
that scapegoat. He's the one that the priest
laid his hands on. And he's the priest. And he bore
those sins away into the wilderness. Separated them from us as far
as the east is from the west. And God says, I remember them
no more. For God not to see our sins, how can we understand that? We can't. We can't comprehend
that. But we rest all our lives and
our souls on the truth of it. These things are too wonderful
for me. But it's the only hope I have. And God's convinced me
that they're true. They shall be all taught of God.
Father, I thank thee that thou hast hid these things from the
wise and the prudent, and you revealed them unto babes. Oh, lest you become as a little
child, you should not enter the kingdom of heaven. Suffer the
little children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of
God. What is a little child? Do you tell a three or four-year-old
child something? They're not gonna question you.
They're not gonna say, well, now wait a minute, that's not what I think. No,
they're gonna swallow it hook, line, and sinker and believe
every word you say to them, aren't they? And that's what we do. God makes you a little child.
You just believe everything God says. Everything. You don't stand
in judgment of God. You don't say, well now, wait
a minute, let's rethink this. No, you just believe. These things
are too wonderful for me. The way of the eagle in the air,
the way God would bless his word by his spirit to give faith to
his people, oh, it's beyond my understanding. The way of the
serpent upon a rock. How the Lord Jesus Christ could
bear my sins and put them away by the sacrifice of himself once
and for all is too wonderful for me. As people say, well,
what are you talking about? Are you talking about blind faith,
preacher? Oh no, I'm not talking about blind faith. I see very
clearly that these things are true. Matter of fact, I see them
more clearly than I see anything else. God gives you eyes to see,
it's not blind faith. You do see it and you do believe
it. Understand it? No. No, but I
see. I see, God gives you eyes to
see, you see. He gives you the seeing eye and
the hearing ear are both of the Lord. Say, are you talking about
hearing the voice of God, preacher? Are you talking about hearing
an audible voice? No, it's a lot louder than that. It's a whole
lot louder than that. What about the ship in the midst
of the sea? Well, that's the believer's life in this world.
That's sanctification. That's God's providence and provisions
for his people. The scripture says the way of
the Lord is through the seas. And the seas represent the turbulence
and the trouble and the separation. What do we have when we look
at the physical world? What do we see between the land
masses? We see vast oceans. And so it
is, we look through a glass darkly now. We long for that day when
we'll see him as he is and be made like him. And right now
there's a separation between us and God. And that's the way
of the sea. And the turbulence of the sea
of those disciples, they found themselves in the midst of that
sea. And Lord, care us not that we
perish? Don't we feel that way sometimes?
Lord, I'm perishing in this world. The troubles of this world are
too great for me. Lord, you're going to help me. And we call out to him and he
says, peace, peace to you. Oh, what manner of man is this
that even the wind and the seas obey his voice? And then when
John sees the glorious Church in heaven, what does he say?
And there was no more sea. No more sea. What a day that'll
be. No more sea. This is the way
of the ship in the sea. It's the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ being tossed about. It's seen in the book of Jonah. Those seasoned, salty sailors
thought they were going to die until Jonah was cast into the
sea and then the sea became... and they survived because Jonah,
who is a picture of Christ, went down into the sea. He went down
into the troubles that we know and he knows them so much better
than we do. Oh, we have a high priest who
is able to sympathize with our afflictions. He knows. This is too wonderful for me.
The way of the ship in the sea. Acts chapter 27. Remember when the Apostle Paul
was going to Rome and there was that shipwreck and the scripture
tells us, I forgot it, 245 men on that ship and the ship was
breaking up and rocks and some of the sailors wanted to get
off the ship and Paul had a word from God. He said, if any man,
if every one of us stays on this ship, we'll survive. You get
off the ship, you're not gonna survive. The way of the ship
in the sea is the church. God directs her. We have an anchor
for our soul, a forerunner, the scripture says in Hebrews chapter
six, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you think back in the days
when they didn't have motors like we have today, all they
had was the wind of the sail, the sail and the wind, and ships
couldn't just power into a safe harbor. They had to take the
anchor on a dinghy and they had to carry that anchor in ahead
of the ship and plant that anchor in a rock. And that's what Hebrews
chapter 6, we have an anchor for our soul, sure and steadfast. And then the men would take that
anchor rope and pull that ship into a safe harbor. The Lord
Jesus Christ is that anchor. And the way of the ship in the
sea is the ship being brought by God into the safe harbor and
everyone that stays on the ship. Oh, these things are too wonderful
for me. The way of the eagle in the air, the way of the serpent
upon the rock, the way of the ship in the sea, and the way
of a man with a maid. Now what's he talking about?
He's talking about conception and birth of a child. And we
think, well, and what an incredible mystery that was 2,000 years
ago or 3,000 years ago when the Book of Proverbs was being written.
And people will say today, well, we understand how that works
now. Everything, every time we discover
some mystery of science, it unfolds 10 more new questions that we
never even knew to ask before, do we? Men are so proud and thinking,
oh, we've got it all figured out now. No, we don't. No, we
don't. The more we learn, the more we
learn we don't know. We don't understand conception and that
child being birthed and the miracle of all of that. It's too great
for us. But he's not talking about that.
He's talking about the miracle of the new birth. He's talking
about being formed in the womb. of the church and being birthed
by the Spirit of God. And he's talking about that,
what Nicodemus didn't understand it. Oh, he was a leader of the
Jews. If you'd lived in Nicodemus'
day, you would have said, that man's not going to heaven, none
of us got a chance. And yet he came to the Lord by night. representing
the darkness of his own soul. And the Lord told him he had
to be, except a man be born again of the Spirit. He cannot see
the kingdom of God. You can't even begin to perceive
of it, Nicodemus. That's what that word see means.
And Nicodemus responded by, how can I go back into my mother's
womb? What a fool you are, Nicodemus. I'm not talking about going back
into your mother's womb. I'm talking about that which
the Spirit of God does. When He takes a lost person and
brings them, causes them to be found. When He takes a dead person
and makes them alive. When He takes one who is by nature
at enmity with God and makes them to love Christ and become
friends of God. This is a miracle. This is too
wonderful for me. when he takes one who is under
the law and looking to their works for the hope of their salvation
and delivers them from the bondage of the law and gives them faith
in Christ. This is the new birth. Oh Lord, cause me to be born
of the Spirit. Make me to be alive. Give me
eyes to see. Lord, if you lead me to myself,
I'll remain a stranger to your grace. This miracle of the new
birth is too wonderful for me, and I completely depend upon
you as I am, as I am, for the way of the eagle in the air,
for you to take the Spirit of God and the Word of God and bless
them to my heart and reveal to me Christ as the way of the serpent
upon the rock, how the Lord Jesus Christ could bear my sins in
his body and put them away by the sacrifice of himself. Oh, the way of the ship in the
sea and the way of the man upon the maiden. These things are
too wonderful for us. But the hope of our salvation
is dependent upon us rejoicing in them and believing them for
what they are, the miracles of God's grace. Amen. Thank you, brother.