In this sermon, the preacher discusses four small and feeble creatures that God has created: ants, conies, locusts, and spiders. He emphasizes the wisdom displayed by these creatures despite their size and weakness. The preacher draws parallels between the wisdom of these creatures and the importance of holding fast to our faith in God's promises. He also warns about the consequences of rejecting the Son of God and the need for careful preparations for the future. The sermon concludes with a reflection on the power of unity and the influence of small groups in achieving their goals.

And now shall we turn in our Bibles to Psalm 61 for our scripture reading. I'll read the first, the unnumbered verses. We ask you to join together as you read the even-numbered verses, and shall we stand as we read Psalm 61. Hear my cry, O God, attendant to my prayer. For Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. For Thou, O God, hast heard my vows. Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy name. He shall abide before God forever. O, prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him. Let's pray. Lord, we're so thankful for that place of refuge and strength. As we often, Lord, find ourselves resorting to the rock that is higher than we are, that is higher than the difficulties that we are facing. Teach us, Lord, when overwhelmed by the of life, to seek that safety and to seek that refuge in Jesus Christ, our rock. In His name we pray, Amen. This morning we want to draw your attention to Proverbs 30, beginning with verse 24. Tonight we'll be going through 30 and 31. We encourage you to be with us as we conclude the book of Proverbs. There are four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise. The ants, there are people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer. The conies are but a feeble folk, yet they make their houses in the rocks. The locusts have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands. And the spider or the gecko takes hold with her hands and is in king's palaces. Four little, feeble, wise creatures that God has created. The ant, the first of the four, we've all encountered these wise, small, little insects. They often invade our homes. They live in colonies which are quite complex. There are many different rooms within the colony. There's the room for the queen, where she lays her eggs. There is the nursery where the worker ants come and take the eggs and incubate them in the nursery and watch over the little ants until they're old enough to go out to work. There are the storage rooms where they store the seeds and the food that they gather. There are rooms for the worker ants to just kick back and rest for a while. And deep down within the nest, sometimes as deep as 40 feet in the ground, are the winter quarters, where the ants, who cannot really survive the winters in most climates, find their winters down deep in the winter's quarters. Have you ever thought of how small an ant's brain must be? As I've watched these tiny little creatures talk about miniaturization, I've often wondered just how small an ant brain must be. And yet, these little creatures have a lot of wisdom. They're able to communicate intelligibly with each other through the antennae that are on the front of their heads. They smell, they touch, they taste, and they hear. They have scout ants that are always in constant search for food. And when they find food, they have a way of communicating to the other ants, I found some food left out in the kitchen, follow me. And soon there is this parade of ants coming and going, carrying away the food to their quarters, where they are storing up the food for the winter months. Sometimes they cultivate their own food. The aphids, which are on the leaves of your plants, actually take in more water and honey than they can absorb themselves, and thus the excess sort of oozes from them. And the little ants come, and they take what they call the honeydew from the aphids, and they carry that to their nest. They have ants within the colony that are, well, they're called repletes. And these repletes just hang from the ceiling, that's their task. They get so fat that they can't move. And the ants bring this honeydew and deposit it in their mouths, and it fills up the back portion of the ant until it swells up like a balloon. And it's really a storage tank. And when the ant gets thirsty or hungry, it'll come, and with this little antennae, it'll stroke the replete ant, and it exudes, regurgitates actually the honeydew, and the ant gets a drink and goes back to work. But you look at the wisdom of these little creatures. It says they gather their food in the summer. And as I said, in most climes, they're not able to get out in the winter months. So it's important that they lay up a store of food for the summer. Now, somehow, in their little miniature brains, they understand and know that winter is coming. In the wintertime, they'll not be able to get out to gather food. And so they have enough wisdom to take the opportunity during the summer to store up sufficient food for the winter months. And in this, you have to confess that this little ant with a miniature brain has a lot more wisdom than a lot of adults who never make any provision for the future. We all know and understand that one day we are going to die. But many people have never made any preparation for that day. Now, I'm not talking like the preparation that the mortuaries say, where come in and buy an insurance policy, and you can pick out your casket now, and pick out your grave site, and have it all set, and you know, that kind of preparation for death. No, I'm talking about the preparation for what's going to happen after you die. For the Bible tells us that it is appointed unto man once to die, but after that, the judgment. And how many people, knowing they're going to die, knowing that they have that appointment, have never made any provision for meeting God after they are dead. The Bible tells us that we're going to meet God one day. In fact, the prophet Amos called to the people and said, prepare to meet your God. And there are preparations that need to be made. Jesus said, don't lay up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven. But how many people have not followed the advice of Jesus? They have made no provision at all for after death, when they face God in judgment. In the book of Hebrews, we're warned that once a person has received the knowledge of Jesus Christ, if they go on willfully sinning by rejecting him, God has made no other provision for their sins. All they have to look forward to is the fearful, certain judgment and the fiery indignation of God, by which he will destroy his adversaries. Those who despise the law that was given to Moses died without mercy, if there were two or three that would witness against them. Of how much worse do you suppose the punishment will be for those who have trodden underfoot the son of God? They counted the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for their sins, an unholy thing. And they've rejected the spirit of grace. For we know the writer said, the one who said, vengeance belongs to me, I will repay. And again he said, the Lord shall judge his people. He then declares, it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God. There are people who have made careful preparations for life. They've sought to set themselves up with various types of investments, so that when they get to that age where they can no longer get out and hustle and work, that they'll be able to be taken care of. And we call that wise planning, the planning of your estate. But so many of these same people have made no provisions for the future. Kay was reading me a portion of an article that she was looking at this week about Doris Duke, one of her homes of 68,000 square feet. But I said to Kay, you know, with all that she had, when her appointment came to meet the Lord, she took nothing of all her very vast wealth with her. And you will take nothing with you except that which you have sent ahead. The ant has enough wisdom to know that there is a time when it must prepare for the future, the future that it knows is coming. Somehow it knows that wintertime is coming, I'm not going to be able to get out. And thus it uses the opportunity that it has in the summer to lay up and store up for itself, sufficient to survive through the winter. You know that death is coming. Do you have enough wisdom that you have laid up for that future that you know is going to happen? The second little creature is the coney. That's not the rabbit, but it is the hyrax. The hyrax is a little furry animal. It looks a lot like a rabbit, about the size of a rabbit. But it is, as a rabbit, very feeble. It has absolutely no defensive ability against the many predators that would like to prey upon it. It really has no real defense. Rabbits can run. The hyrax isn't that fast. And thus, knowing that it is pretty defenseless, knowing that it is totally at the mercy of the predatory animals, the coyotes, the wolves, and all that would prey upon it, it has made its home in the rocks. If you go to En Gedi, there by the Dead Sea in Israel, you will always see a lot of these little hyrax as they are down there in the creek bed and among the reeds. There's always one of the hyrax who is on guard. He watches for the coyotes or the wolves or the cougars that are in the area. And if it sees one, it'll let out sort of a whistle and all the little hyrax will run quickly to their little homes in the rocks. And they will go back in to the rock and there they will just remain until the animal is gone. It's wise enough to know that it doesn't have any defense itself. And thus, it has learned to make its home in something that is stronger than its enemy. So the coyote can be at the entrance to this little rock house of the hyrax. It can bark and all that it wants. It can try to dig away at the rock, but it is unable to get to the hyrax because it is safely ensconced back within that rock, hiding and they're sheltered from the enemy. If we have wisdom, we will realize that the enemy that we face, Satan himself, is much stronger than we are. We really don't have any real defense against him. And thus, if I am wise, I will find my place of refuge in the rock Christ Jesus. Oh, safe to the rock that is higher than I. My soul in its conflict and sorrows would fly. Making your place of refuge in Christ Jesus. Though I am no match for Satan, Satan is no match for Jesus. And if I am abiding in Christ, then I am safe from his attacks and his attempts to get at me. And I have the protection of the rock in which I abide. John wrote in his first letter, we know that whoever is born of God does not live in sin, but he who has been begotten of God, that is Jesus, he keeps him so that the wicked one cannot touch him. As I abide in Christ, Satan can't get to me. The Apostle Paul asked in Romans 8.35, who can separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. But yet in all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, height nor depth, nor any other created thing can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Knowing my weaknesses, if I have the wisdom of a hyrax, I'll learn to make my abode in the rock. Hiding in thee, hiding in thee, thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee. Next, he mentions the locusts, a form of grasshopper. It says they go forth in bands, they have no king, and yet they are somehow united. They've learned the power of unity. A locust by itself or even in a small group can easily be eradicated. But coming as it does in large hordes into the millions, sometimes so many that they block out the sun and the earth becomes dark with the hordes of locusts that are flying in to an area. And they can take over. Highways become dangerous to drive on. They become so slippery with the cars running over the locusts. Trains are often stalled on a grade because of the locusts and the wheels are just spinning. They've learned the power of unity and can overcome a large area because of the unity. No kings and yet they are together in a unified force. There are many groups who have learned the power of unifying behind a cause. I'm appalled at the power that can be exercised by a small group of people who are unified to their cause. I think of the environmentalists and I think of all of the foolish and ridiculous laws that they have actually lobbied and had passed that deal with environmental issues. And some of them are non-scientific and yet we have to abide by them because of the environmentalists. A great multi-million dollar project was stopped of, you know, setting up dams and so forth back in Tennessee to create power and all because of a little snail darter fish that they thought would be threatened by these waters being dammed up. And they thought that it was ready to be extinct and then after stopping this whole project, after the government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars, then later on they find this snail darter in other ponds and all. Sad, sad, sad. But yet they've unified and thus have strength. The homosexual community have unified and look at how they have been able to gain such power through their unifying. Here in the state of California, back in the year 2000, Governor Davis signed bill number AB 537 into law which mandates that the schools cannot define the gender of a student. That the student himself or herself have the right to identify their gender. So as a boy I could go in and say I'm really a girl and I enjoy dressing like a girl. I enjoy wearing makeup and so forth and I feel more feminine than I do masculine and they have to accept me as a girl and let me dress as I please with my lipstick and everything else as I go to school. Right now in Westminster, the school board, three of the gender isn't defined by an emotional state, but it is defined by a physiological condition that a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl. Not what you feel you are, but what you are physiologically. And because they have refused to bow to this law in the state of California, they are threatened with the cutoff of state funds for the schools there in Westminster. And there are under heavy pressure right now. The state has given them till the 20th to determine whether or not they're going to abide by this state statute. Sadly enough, all of the other schools in the state of California have bowed to this edict. So that a young person going to high school can tell the high school what gender they are. And you can imagine the problems that will arise from such idiocy. But you see, by banding together, they're able to exert tremendous powers. One of the great weaknesses of the church today is our inability to unify on issues that are important to maintain a strong moral condition within our nation. When some moral issue comes up, they can always get some idiot with a reverend in front of their name to, you know, declare, well, you know, this should not be. And they can always get some liberal to go ahead and expound against the moral issues that we would like to see upheld in our nation. The churches just can't seem to get together and band themselves together against the moral freefall that we are presently experiencing in the United States. The gays can get thousands to mobilize and rally for their cause. They'll open their pocketbooks to support it financially. But the church does well to get a handful of people out to a prayer meeting to oppose the issues. The fourth of the little creatures that was wise is, it says, the spider. But the word in Hebrew is simamith, which is actually a gecko. We are told that because it takes hold with its feet, it dwells in king's palaces. Each little paw of the gecko has a hook, and the pads each have thousands of little fine hairs that are like a bristle, so that the gecko is able to crawl up the side of a window. And then it can run upside down on the ceiling. It's a form of a lizard, but you see them all over in Hawaii in the houses. They take hold with their feet, and they dwell in houses all over Hawaii. And of course, many of the Hawaiians like them in the house because they do eat the other many insects and so forth that also infest the homes in Hawaii. And so geckos are sort of a welcome little pet in a lot of the homes in Hawaii. But they dwell in some beautiful homes. Lovely homes, palatial palaces, because they have the ability to hold on with their feet, and they can just about go anywhere because of their ability to grip with these little feet. I think that the spiritual lessons for us from the gecko is what we can obtain if we will just lay hold on the promises of God. I am certain that the majority of believers today live far beneath their privileges, because we don't take hold of the promises of God. James said, you have not because you ask not. And so many times, a person just doesn't hold on to the promises of God. And thus, we live beneath the level that we could be living if we would just lay hold on God's promises. Peter tells us that unto us are given exceeding rich and precious promises, that by these, we might be made partakers of the divine nature. The Bible is filled with promises, wonderful promises for you and for me. We need to hold on to those promises. We used to sing, every promise in the book is mine. Every chapter, every verse, every line. And I'm living in his love divine, because every promise in the book is mine. And we, as the children of the Lord, need to claim the promises of God. We need to hold on to the promises of God. And if we do, we will one day dwell in King's palaces. We'll dwell in the palace of our King, Jesus Christ, as we lay hold on these wonderful promises of eternal life, of heaven with Him, living with Him in His kingdom. The promises are there. All you have to do is lay hold on them. In Hebrews 10, 23, the author commands us to hold fast to our profession of faith without wavering, because he is faithful who has promised. Hold fast to the promises of God. Small little ant, miniature brain, but it has enough wisdom to prepare for the future that it knows is coming. The coney, feeble defenseless little animal, but it has survived extinction when stronger species have disappeared, because it had enough wisdom to know it was weak, and thus to make its home in the rock. The locust, by banding together, unifying, is able to conquer vast territory. And the gecko, because of its ability to grip with its little paws, dwells in the best mansions in Hawaii and in King's palaces. Oh may God help us to learn from the wisdom of these small little creatures, but wise. Father, we do ask that you would help us to manifest the wisdom of these small creatures. Help us, Lord, to prepare for the future, to hide in Christ our rock of refuge and safety. Lord, that we also might take hold with our hands and lay claim to the promises that you have given, that we might unite together, Lord, in the causes of your kingdom. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.