For today's text, I selected
one of my favorite passages, Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23
and 24. It's been quite a few years since
I preached from this passage, so I decided I'd revisit it today
with this message that I've titled, Words of Delight. Words of Delight,
the reference being to that which God takes delight in. So by way
of introduction, Be turning to the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter
12. Ecclesiastes is a book that God used the great King Solomon
to record for us. And King Solomon was really a
distinguished king among all the kings of Israel. He was a
very wise and influential king. In fact, in 1 Kings 4.31, we're
told he was wiser than all men. and that his fame was in all
nations round about. Solomon was a very rich king. 1 Kings 10.23 says, so King Solomon
exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. And Solomon also was a very mighty
king. He reigned over a vast kingdom.
He was very influential. We're told people came from all
over to seek his counsel. Verse Kings 10-24, we're told
all the earth sought to hear his wisdom. Now Ecclesiastes,
if you could put it this way, is like a sermon in print by
King Solomon, whose chief subject is the true way, God's way of
eternal life. and of happiness and of blessedness.
And that contrasted with the ways of man in his natural wisdom
and with respect to man's being consumed with the pleasures and
riches of this world. And Solomon concluding regarding
man's natural presumed way to eternal life and his other priorities
that all was vanity, futile. Book of Ecclesiastes begins in
chapter one with this. It said, the words of the preacher,
Solomon speaking of himself, the son of David, king in Jerusalem,
and right away in verse two, he jumps in with vanity of vanities,
saith the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. So here
we have this very wise, this very rich, this very mighty king
concluding that all which he could bring to bear, regarding
the weightier issues of eternal life counted for nothing, vanity,
futile. He concludes that man moves rapidly
down the road to eternity to face God's justice and that man
in his mightiest state is found altogether lacking what he needs
within himself. So look with me there in Ecclesiastes
chapter 12. He repeated in verse eight that
all is vanity, and he adds in verse nine, and moreover, that
is, or better you hear the conclusion of the matter, he continues and
said, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people
knowledge. Yea, he gave good heed and sought
out and set in order many proverbs. The preacher sought to find out
acceptable words And that which was written was upright, even
words of truth. I want you to know that in the
Hebrew, the words that are translated there as acceptable words means
words in which one takes delight. And as we're about to see, that's
similar to a phrase in our text in Jeremiah 9. You see, it's
imperative we discover and then we embrace these acceptable words
These words of delight, because they're the words that convey
truth about God, in which he takes delight. He's referring
to the gospel, words that are upright, unmixed, unadulterated
with the vain doctrines and ideas of natural man. Now in Jeremiah
9, verses 23 and 24, our text for today, God commends us where
we're not to look, as well as where we are to look for eternal
salvation. And he concludes at the end of
verse 24 by saying, for in these things I delight. God's telling
us precisely, I believe in these two verses, that which pleases
him. You know, you've heard people
say, I'm sure as I have, that, well, I like to think that salvation
is like this, or I like to think it's like that. Know this, God
is the one who tells us what is acceptable in his sight, and
he's the judge of all. And I think that's why I love
these verses so much. It is kind of like an open book
quiz, if you would, as to the essence of the gospel, the way
of salvation according to God. So look with me at those. Jeremiah
9, beginning verse 23. Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not
the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the
Lord, which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in
the earth. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord. Now I want you to know from the
get-go here that we have a description of one group of people in verse
23 whose hope is actually diametrically opposed to those that are described
in verse 24. And I believe that's descriptive
of the two ways in which all men approach God for salvation. It's the religion of grace or
the religion of works. It's either God's way of salvation
in which he delights or it's fallen man's contrived way which
would include some work of his hand. And God tells us here in
what we are not to glory in as well as in whom and what we are
to glory. You know, to glory in something
refers to that in which we would boast, what we will rejoice in
or base our hope for eternity upon. We glory see in that which
we think will find us acceptance with God. That's the things God
delights in. And so let's start with our consideration
of that which God directs us to glory in in verse 24, and
then we'll come back and we'll consider by contrast that which
we're told not to glory in from verse 23. Verse 24, notice he
says, Let him that gloryeth, glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. Now we don't
need to stop right there, but I want to pause and think about
that, because knowing God is a big deal. In fact, Christ prayed
in John 17, three, and this is life eternal, that they might
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. But the specific understanding
and knowledge which we're to glory in, that would be an understanding
that would exclude one's own knowledge as being some sort
of condition of salvation. It would be an evidence, but
not a condition. You see, if we make it a condition,
if you can accumulate this knowledge and thereby be saved, well that
would be glorying in our own wisdom, which verse 23 specifically
forbids. Now, understanding and knowledge
has an object. So it's referring to what, or
better, to whom we are to glory or place our hope. We're to know
the Lord as described herein. Now, the Lord here is Yahweh. This is God himself. He is the
Lord, God-man, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and
righteousness in the earth. So let's begin by looking at
God's way of salvation here in verse four, the way of grace.
First, we're to know the Lord was, he's speaking here of the
Lord who exercised something in the earth. To exercise something
is to execute it, to accomplish, to finish those things that are
listed and that in the earth. So this is speaking of Christ
in his incarnation and what he, the God-man, accomplished in
his life and death on earth. He exercised loving kindness. When I think of God's love, we
usually begin with his eternal purpose to save, and I think
rightfully so. His love is upon those he intends
to show mercy to. God's electing love we know is
unconditional. It's, as we study from Romans
11 recently, it's an election of grace. But always remember
that God's election is not simply God choosing of a people, but
it's a choosing of a people unto salvation in Christ. And that's the sense of how his
loving kindness is exercised in the earth. You see, seeing
the saved as objects of God's everlasting love, as vessels
of mercy prepared before the world began, in no way negates
the absolute necessity of God engaging all that he is, every
attribute of his character, to accomplish those things in time
for those he loved. He exercised loving kindness
in the earth by his redemptive cross work some 2,000 years ago. We're to look to the one who
exercised judgment in the earth. This is carrying out the judicial
sentence. God the Father killed Christ,
God the Son, who willingly laid down his life as their surety
in order to extract the debt that was owed to his justice
for all the sins that were charged or imputed to him. Judgment was
executed on the cross for all those for whom he lived and died,
all the objects of his everlasting love. And we're to look to the
one who exercised righteousness, that is who rendered perfect
satisfaction to God's law and justice by his obedience unto
death. And he did that in such a way
that God can be consistent with who he is. that God were to know. He can be both a loving Savior
and still be a just judge. In the passage Mark read in Isaiah
45, he says, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the
earth. I'm God and there's none else. And he had just told us
the distinguishing characteristic. Look to me, a just God and a
Savior. And how does God's, how does
all this, Christ's exercise of loving kindness, judgment, and
righteousness in the earth, how does that get applied, how does
that do me any good? Those for whom this work was
rendered? Well, 2 Corinthians 5, 21 tells
us. For he, God the Father, hath
made him, that is God the Son, to be sin for us. That is him
who do no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. I love that verse. Christ died for sins that he
had no part in producing so that those for whom he died might
have his very righteousness put to their account, a righteousness
they had no part whatsoever in producing. Well, now let's go
back and contrast this way The way of grace with the way of
works is set forth in verse 23. And I suggest to you that's the
way of man's natural religion, that is, as he would be predisposed
to believe in his natural state, that is, in spiritual blindness,
the blindness we're all born into. Verse 23 says, thus saith
the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Neither
let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory
in his riches. When you read that, it makes
me think of King Solomon. If there was any mortal man in
history that had cause to glory or boast in his wisdom, his might,
or his riches, it would be Solomon, and yet we saw he concluded that
was all vanity, as he sought and was taught the gospel. the acceptable words, the words
of delight, how God can accept sinners such as we by the doing
and dying of a substitute, his promised Messiah, by that which
Christ alone exercised in the earth. You know, at first glance,
when you consider these things, there may be a tendency to discount
that these forbidden ways of imagining salvation is ours, I'm just not sure that would
apply to me, we might say. And yet, this verse, I believe,
describes ways that are natural to each and every one of us.
And therefore, it's consistent with God's declaration that we
all must repent or perish. He said in Acts 17, you know,
call on all men everywhere now to repent. But, you know, when
you think about it, who really imagines that gaining eternal
life is based on their wisdom. I don't know anyone that imagines
that because I'm smarter than someone or wiser than someone
else that I'll be blessed of God because of that. Or when
you think of it in that vein. Or because of how mighty or powerful
or influential they are as compared to others. Or how they may have
more riches than others. I don't know anyone openly who
would think they're going to find acceptance with God because
of how smart or powerful or rich they are, yet many believe, I
do know, they believe these temporal blessings to be indicators of
God's eternal blessings and favor toward us. But there is a sense
in which we can all identify with this natural tendency of
man. Think of glorying in your own wisdom. To glory in my wisdom
doesn't necessarily mean I'm claiming to be accepted by God
because I'm smarter than those who are not so blessed. It's
to glory. It's to place my hope in a way
of salvation that naturally seemed right to me. That's my own wisdom. But as we're told in Proverbs
16, 25, and in Proverbs 14, there's a way that seemeth right unto
a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. So that means
we all start off, you're gonna start off believing what seems
right to you, and so we all start off actually glorying in that
which seems right, whereby we presume to do our part to get
ourselves saved, Imagining salvation's condition in some ways to some
degree on us, the sinner, rather than on Christ alone, who met
all the conditions necessary for the sinners, he says, all
based upon that which he exercised in the earth. Now, I've used
this example before and I believe it to be so true. Even someone
who's raised up under the gospel of God's grace, as a kid perhaps
growing up in the church, You know, we don't start off with
spiritual life, and when God is pleased, if he is so pleased,
to start dealing with that center, the spirit. What's the first
thing he asked or she asked? It's the same question that Philippian
Jayler asked. Well, even if, let's say, I believe
in the doctrine of election, what must I do to be included
in that group? It's just natural to us. I mean,
it's not a terrible question other than it embodies within
a presupposition that there's something I can do. And when,
you know, Paul and Silas answered that jailer and said, you must
believe, you know, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be
saved, he wasn't giving him something to do. No, he was correcting
his false assumption. He said, man, you've got to believe
in the doing and dying of the Savior. There's nothing you can
do to be saved. We glory in our wisdom when we
imagine anything other than or anything in addition to the imputed
righteousness of Christ could gain God's acceptance and favor
and or remove what otherwise would have been his just wrath
due unto our sins. What about glorying in my might?
Well, it's similar. When I once believed, as most
still do, that salvation was conditioned upon me in some way,
the sinner, I might say because I accepted Jesus or my faith
or my decision, whatever it was, though unwittingly, I still was
relying upon my power, my might, to save myself. That's glorying
in my might. Well, what about glorying in
my riches? Now, I do know there are many
inclined to believe that their station in this life is evidence
of God's eternal favor and thereby glory in their riches. I've had
people say to me when things were going well for you, oh,
you must be living at the foot of the cross. And they don't
want to really hear what I want to explain to them at that point. Now, even if someone credits
God with enabling them to meet whatever condition they presume
to be, they need to meet for their own salvation, recognize
that too is to presume that you now possess, even if you give
God credit and say, thank you as the Pharisee did, thank you
that I'm not like other men, you gave me that ability. It's
to imagine you have the wherewithal, in other words, the riches, so
to speak, to save yourself. That, too, see, is how one might
glory in their riches, assigning to themselves and their decision,
their ability, whatever condition it was, what took the doing and
dying of the Lord of glory. Think of that now. That's awful
rich, isn't it? We're comparing that which we
do with the infinitely valuable blood of Christ, that which it
actually took, And dare we place that which proceeds from us in
rivalry with that, the doing and dying of Christ, his precious
blood. Well, let's look at some other
ways that glorying in these things might be manifested in our day.
As you know, and I speak of this perhaps too often, I think it's
because it's my background, and I know so many who were of like-minded
faith. I shouldn't call it that problem.
You see, the vast majority of Christendom today, they still
believe in the doctrine of universal redemption. They believe that
God loves everybody, Christ died for everyone. Well, I once believed
that as well. And I imagine I was glorying
in Christ. We talked a lot about Christ
and what he had done for us. I presumed to base my hope then
on those things. I would have said, oh yeah, I
agree with verse 24 there. But see, this was not upright
or unmixed thinking. Think of his loving kindness.
I thought I was resting in the love of God that was exercised
by Christ. But what kind of worthless love
would that be, presumably from God, who's all-powerful, He's
all-wise, and so completely able to save, but who would instead
allow the vast majority of these alleged objects of His everlasting
love to perish? He's the Savior? That's not the
love of God. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. If you want to know a lot about
that propitiation, get Mark's 10 o'clock lesson. It's called Punishment and Pardon. And you see, this speaks of the
work of Christ. That's his just as satisfying
sacrifice that Christ made, whereby God's wrath is appeased. God's
wrath was poured out on the substitute, the surety, Jesus Christ. So
to be loved of God is to have your sin debt taken care of by
that substitute and surety, Jesus Christ. And he can't fail. What about judgment? You know,
while I may have thought I was considering all my sins to have
been judged in Christ, I would say, as I was brought up to say,
you know, I'm so thankful Jesus died to take away our sins. But
the reality of that doctrine, I believe, exposed it. Sin, by
my way of thinking, it really had not been taken care of by
Christ. Justice was not upheld. Think
of it. What sort of unjust monster would
extract the punishment for sins through the shedding of the infinitely
valuable blood of his dear son and still sin most according
to scripture of those sinners to hell for whose sins had presumably
been paid for, for whom remission had been made by Christ's death
on the cross. See, Christ didn't die for everyone.
If he did, that wouldn't be executing a just judgment in the earth.
And what about righteousness? While I may have thought I was
looking to the righteousness of God in Christ, the reality
of my doctrine exposed I was looking at another righteousness.
See, righteousness is, according to Acts 17, this is standard
by which God's gonna judge us. So how did I get that righteousness?
I was going about to establish one of my own, as Paul described
those religious but lost folks in Romans 10, one through four.
You see, for all who believe, that even one person for whom
Christ died could possibly perish, they thereby expose that they
don't really see Christ's work on the cross as a finished satisfaction. They don't see it as it is as
righteousness having been exercised. And when I did a word study on
that exercise, it means accomplished, finished. And when Christ died
on the cross and said it is finished, it truly was. That is, the providing
of a perfect satisfaction to God's justice, whereby all those
for whom it was provided, they're declared not guilty, but righteous
in his sight. See, God will not tolerate such
self-glory, because he won't share his glory. Psalm 147, 10,
11 tells us that, he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man,
You know, we speak of horsepower, that would be manpower. The Lord
take its pleasure in them that fear him, and those that hope
in his mercy. Mercy. Well, clearly, my former
hope, as I've described it, as with so many others, was based
upon my wisdom, a way of my own imagination, which seemed right
to me. It was based upon my might. It was because I had the power
to cut the deal and get myself saved, I presumed, and my riches. I had the wherewithal to procure
my own salvation, that which took the blood of Christ. Now,
Christ purchased his church with his own blood, we're told in
Acts 20, 28. The beliefs of other so-called
Christians expose that they glory in these same forbidden things
as being the real difference makers, even among some of those
who weren't mistaken about the extent of God's Christ's atonement. And so it may be more subtle,
but I'm speaking of those whose gospel, body of faith, their
doctrine exposes a view that what Christ exercised or accomplished
in the earth just isn't quite sufficient for them. You see,
they can rightly conclude they must have Christ's work of righteousness
imputed to them, and then deny that this, his work alone, really
got the job done. And I'm thinking of those who
insist upon finding righteousness within themselves. You know,
unlike Bunyan, who said, my righteousness sits at the right hand of the
Father on high. It was his by imputation and
imputation alone. You don't want to be looking
in here. It's not pretty. Some even go so far as to say
the imputation of righteousness is not how the saved are made
righteous, but instead is merely God's recognition of an inherent
righteousness found within the center. And that's a fault, and
that's a deadly understanding of the glorious doctrine of imputation.
Others agree that Christ's finished work is righteousness. They'll
say it's the ground of our salvation. But they'll go on to suggest,
almost akin to the Jews telling the Gentiles, yeah, but you've
got to be circumcised. You see, they'll go on and suggest
that that is merely a foundation. And for you to be saved, there
remains a completing work to be done by or in you, the center. Think of how contrary that is
to Christ's teaching in the parable of the house built on the rock
and the house built on the sand. You know, in that story, the
only distinguishing characteristic of the house that would stand
under what was typifying the deluge of God's judgment, the
wind and the rains, the only difference between those two
houses was the foundation, the ground. In other words, what
their hope was built upon in that which they gloried. You
know, those who seem they're so close to the truth of God's
way of salvation and then find some way to cling to one last
strand. of controlling their own destiny
that would enable them to look for themselves for their hope
rather than the cross alone. They're still glorying in their
own wisdom because it's contrary to the wisdom of God, to his
way of salvation set forth in the gospel. That's the glory
in your own might. When we allow our eyes to be
diverted away from the cross and instead relying on that which
they have, the power or the might to make it happen. And so some
imagine they will attain entrance into heaven based upon that found
within them, relying on their own riches to save them rather
than the righteousness of God in Christ. Here God in Galatians
6, 14, God forbid that I should glory, save, except in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look again at Jeremiah 9, 24. It read, but let him that gloryeth,
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the
Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in
the earth, for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. See, this is what God delights
in. It's what his preachers set forth. These are the words of
delight. And I want to close, if you would,
turn to 1 Corinthians 1. I want to close by reading a
passage I believe is complementary to that, which we've studied
today. Paul wrote this to the believers at Corinth, beginning
in verse 26, saying, For ye see your calling, brethren, how that
not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to
bring to naught things that are. Look in particular here at verse
29. That no flesh should glory in
his presence, but of him, he tells these believers, are ye
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. See, when it comes to the way
of salvation, the wise man, he has no wisdom within himself,
nor the mighty man's strength, nor the rich man riches. unless
God has graciously put them in Christ, and then by in time,
by that blood-bought gift of faith, made Christ to be their
wisdom, their righteousness, their sanctification, and their
redemption. And so this passage concludes
there in verse 31, that according as it is written, he that glorieth
glory in the Lord. And I pray that's where your
glory, where you'll place your trust, see in the Lord. in his person, the Lord, and
his work, that which he exercised. And there alone is where the
sinner finds acceptance, where God is glorified, where Christ
is exalted. And all boasting in the sinner
is excluded. We're to glory in the Lord. So believe this gospel, these
words of delight. Thank you.