Proverbs chapter 30. One of these simple, I say simple texts. See Christ in there. And I hope it's simple enough to make you and make me want to flee to Christ.

Mr. Spurgeon has a book. It's entitled The Teachings of Nature in the Kingdom of Grace. And I've often looked at it and he, and when I get to this, you'll see what I'm saying, but there's a lot of scriptures where there's things going on in nature, flowers, flower of the field fades away. And it speaks of the depravity of man in other areas, the Eagle, the Hawk, the bird, the mama bird covering the chicks with the wings, all these things, picture God's grace. And I love these pictures. Always have. And I wish to expound upon this subject in Proverbs chapter 30.

Let's look at verses 24 through 28. Proverbs 30. Verse 28 through 28. 24 through 28. There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer. The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make their houses in the rocks. The locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands. The spider taketh hold with her hands and is in kings' palaces.

I want to look specifically at verse 26. 26. The Cones are but a feeble folk, yet make their houses in the rocks.

In the realm of nature, nothing is made. For naught. You know, I remember when I, tonsils, when I was little, ever since I was a little kid and had problems with tonsils taken out, our daughter was sick and she had tonsils taken out. After that episode, she never got sick for like four or five years. It seemed like it, it's like, well, you know, you begin to ask. And I remember doctors saying, well, we don't know what they're there for. I don't know if they, I haven't looked at it for a long time. What are tonsils there for? They're useless. They're not meant for anything. Yeah, if God put them in there, They sure are. And this is what we see here. There's nothing in nature that was made for naught. Everything, says Solomon, under heaven has a purpose. Even these cones. Even these cones. Their purpose is to teach, to instruct, and to honor the Creator, and to bring glory to God in the instruction of His redemptive glory. He that hath ears to hear, says the scripture, may hear. Let them hear. If you have ears and eyes, if God exposes or provokes or enables us to hear, that's what we're going to do.

Now, my particular text, as I said, is verse 26. The Cones are but a feeble folk, yet they make their houses in the rocks.

Now, Cones, almost all the writers thought this is more like our rabbit. It's not really that. If you want to look it up, it's kind of a fascinating little creature. It's actually a hyrax, H-Y-R-A-X. It's a hyrax, is what it is. And you can go on Google and look at the pictures. And they look kind of like, they don't look like a rabbit. Their ears are, you know, they're a small mammal. But they have two teeth that are protruding. So maybe somebody thought they were rabbits. So we get that out of the way. Because it's not really that important.

Rabbits are not very smart. Rabbits are not, you know, these conies. But the Lord has given them wisdom. These are called, in verse 24, there are four things which are little. This littleness reveals amazing lessons for his people of grace. He says in the scriptures, fear not, little flock. Does he not? We are little in our own eyes by the grace of God. He's taught us what we are. We are little in our own estimation of ourselves. So we're not, you know, it used to be there are little fish in a big pond or big fish in a little pond. No, we're little fish in little ponds.

And then he says in verse 26, the Cones are but feeble, feeble folk, weak. And we know this can and does refer to the believer. were like these small mammals, exposed to all sorts of dangers. These conies, and as we are, we're exposed from dangers from within. Paul says we're in dangers without. As these conies, dangers from predators flying above, below, they don't have no natural defenses.

I will say this, known littleness and realized feebleness makes us take shelter. If you think you're something, and the scripture says if a man thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. So, we're like these conies. Littleness and realized feebleness makes us take shelter. Because we can't protect ourselves. Makes us seek refuge. And in this refuge, this rock, these rocks, Christ is our rock. In him, we're safe. That's just a simple lesson for us this morning.

The Cones are but feeble folk. Well, why did you have to say that? Why is that in there? Because man will know by the Holy Spirit enabling our depravity. It's just simple. Unless you are hungry, you will not seek food. Unless you are thirsty, you will not seek water. And unless you realize you are lost and undone and trespasses and sins, you will not seek a covering. And that's all this passage is saying. The Cones are feeble.

Okay, we've established that. Have we? Have we established that? Every heart here this morning, have we established the fact that you are like this mammal and are feeble? In the spiritual sense. And these are the literal sense. You know, I was just doing some reading on them in there. They're not prairie animals, they're not prairie dogs, they're not forest creatures, they're creatures of a dry Palestine, dry area, and then they just shoot into those holes. They just shoot in there and you can't get them.

The Holy Spirit enlightening our sensibilities makes us seek Him as our hiding place. Look back at verse 24. I was going to ask Nathan when we were back there, but I forgot. These, there before things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise. Now that's, there's a marginal reading. That's not the way it exactly is in the Hebrew text. If you have a marginal reading, it's in the middle of your Bible, it says, but they are made wise. Now isn't that just what grace does to us? It makes us wise.

A wise man foresees evil and flees from it. You get in a situation, you don't need to be there. If God gives you an opportunity, get away. It's that simple, but we make it complex. By the Holy Spirit's enlightening sensibilities, He makes us seek Christ as our hiding place. They are exceeding wise. They are made wise. And doesn't this agree with 1 Corinthians 1.32, Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption?

See, this is like, I've said this many times, Gary Shepard preached the message years ago and he was called the Harmony of the Gospel. And he was like a wheel. And he says, you just keep going back. Well, this makes sense with that, that makes sense with this in the scriptures, because the scriptures are harmonious. And they all tell us about Christ. And in this case, we're like the Coneys And yet Christ, we make our houses, our abode in the rocks, in Christ, in Christ. Well, that's the second thought. Feeble, yes, but wise unto salvation? That's what the scripture says. How so? Well, it specifically states in our text, these feeble folk make their, or we make our, home houses in the rocks. Who is the rock? It's the Lord Jesus Christ, which, you know, Matt read it back in the back there in Psalms. Bless God, who has shown us in the gospel the everlasting home of the saints.

And this everlasting home, you know, We've been in our homes for a while now. Each family, we've been in our homes for a while. And there really is no place like home. I mean, it's comfortable. It's got the smells. It's comfortable. And so to abide there is a beautiful thing. It's a wonderful thing. It's a cozy thing. It's a comforting thing. All these things you can think of about our home. Well, Christ is our home. He's our home. We gather together, and whether we're talking about woodland creatures, or we're talking about creatures of the rocks, or whether we're talking about ants, or we're talking about spiders, we're gonna show forth Christ in the simplest application.

In this rock, our Christ, we are well guarded, we are well protected, we're well fed, we're well covered, And safety is ours through Christ and His sovereign grace unto us. We're fenced in, as it were, so we are safe, as we sing in that song, safe in the shepherd's fold. We flee daily to, turn to Psalm 61. Psalm 61. 61 verse 2, from the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I. There's protection, there's safety. And then as Matt read back in the back, Verse 6 chapter 62, he only is my rock and my salvation and he's my defense. I shall not be greatly moved. Verse six, he only is my rock, my salvation, he is my defense, I shall not be moved. And God is my salvation, my glory, the rock of my strength, my refuges in God.

Christ is mentioned as the rock in so many other places. Turn with me to Isaiah 33. Isaiah 33. Starting in verse 15, he that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he that despises the gain of oppressions and shakes his hands from holding the bribes that stops his ears from hearing of blood and shut his eyes from seeing evil, he shall dwell on high. His place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks. Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes, where? In the rocks and munitions, while we're hid in Christ. Thine eyes shall see the king and his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off. So where do we see the king and his beauty? In Christ. In the rocks, like these feeble, ignorant, simple, slow mammals. Look at verses, herein is the most merciful place in the rocks. We behold him, we adore him, and we worship him.

Look at verse 18 in the same chapter. Thine heart shall meditate, shall meditate. Where is the scribe? Where is the receiver? Where is he that counteth the towers? It's in the munitions. That's where it's at. Look at Proverbs 22. Turn back a little bit to Proverbs 22. A prudent man, or a coney, foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. He hides us in the cleft of the rock. Where's that at? That's in Exodus 33. He hide, and we sing that song. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock. Just as these small creatures, we would do well to imitate them and to seek refuge from sin and uncleanness in and by and through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The rock. He is called in 1 Corinthians 10, verse four, the rock of Israel. We are called, turn to Isaiah 42. This is what we are called. Isaiah 42 in verse 11 and 12. Isaiah 42, 11 and 12, let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voices. The village of Kidar, let the inhabitants of the rock sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord and declare his praise in the islands.

We're inhabitants of the rock. Where we're safe, where we're secure, where we're loved, where we're covered, where we're protected. We are called the inhabitants of the rock. And as I said, before he is the rock, he's the rock, which was aforementioned is higher than ourselves, Psalm 61.

What does Matthew chapter 16 say? The church is built upon this rock. No, it's not Peter. It's not this, no, no, no, no. The rock is Christ. The rock is the, and the rock sustains the church. That's the correct interpretation of that passage. Christ, the church is built upon this rock and nothing it says will prevail over it.

So back to our text. There before things which are little upon the earth, fear not little flock. It is our father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Why? Because we're in the rock. We're in the rock. It's like the city of refuge. When you did something, when you got, if you suspected you were gonna get murdered or killed or because of what you did by accident, you didn't think of anything. You just ran to that city. You ran to that city and when you got in, you were safe.

the conies, these small mammals are feeble. It almost appears that what are they good for? Like the tonsils. God has a purpose and we will learn instruction in righteousness through this. I prayed this morning. They're feeble. Lord, I'm feeble. I'm a sinner. But may I make my abode in you. May I make my abode in money? Money's fleeting, the scripture says. Houses are fleeting. Governments are fleeting. They rise and they fall.

Are you and I safe from the wrath to come? I imagine when the storms, weather came, inclement weather came, storms, they were in those, they were in there. They were in those rocks. They were hid. Do we know this rock as our only refuge from the fierce attacks from the world, from Satan, and the flesh? Do we have this God-given faith-enhancing wisdom our text speaks about?

The Cones are feeble, yet they make their houses into rocks. They're exceeding wise. Christ has made our wisdom. Feeble, may we own it. Sinful, may we confess it. Oh Lord, help us to seek the only true and lasting refuge, our home or house. Christ, the anointed of God, he's the only one who's approved and certified by the everlasting Father. If we flee to him, If we have fled unto him for refuge, we shall have peace, safety, protection, and the forgiveness of sins.

The Kones are but feeble folk, yet make their houses in the rocks. Are we people? Are we inhabitants of the rock? I pray so, and I pray that we'd answer that question before the day is over. May the Lord bless the reading and preaching of his word. Matt, would you close us?