It was the Lord's good providence
that in the middle of the week it worked out that I would be
able to preach tonight. And this is a joyful assignment
for me. And as I thought on Wednesday,
what should I preach? I was reminded I have to turn
in the title and the text on Thursday morning so it can be
in the worship guide. So, I made my decision which
is Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24 because I wanted to preach something
very encouraging. Three weeks ago, I preached on
Wednesday night to the high school ministry and they asked me to
preach on hell. which I did, and I don't think
they've come out of their bedrooms since. And so I thought, I've
got to turn the hamburger on the other side and preach something
that...go into all the world and smile, something like that.
So I chose Jeremiah 9 verse 23 and 24. I had my daughter scan
the notes and send them to me, and so I put it into the worship
guide that I would be preaching this particular text. And after
it was put in, I thought, you know, I probably ought to just
read the whole chapter and just see what the larger context is. And so I read the entire chapter
and I just broke out in a sweat because I'm back with judgment
and condemnation. So it's not my design, this is
the way the Lord has done this, but it's a message really about
knowing God. So I want you to take your Bible
and turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 9. And I want to look
at verses 23 and 24 with you tonight, but I want to begin
in verse 17 that we could get a running start to the context. So Jeremiah chapter 9, I want
to begin reading in verse 27, my focus tonight will be verses
23 and 24, but it will be important that we all see the larger context. Verse 17, thus says the Lord
of hosts. Consider and call for the mourning
women that they may come and send for the wailing women that
they may come. Let them make haste and take
up a wailing for us that our eyes may shed tears and our eyelids
flow with water. For a voice of wailing is heard
from Zion. How we are ruined. We are put
to shame. For we have left the land because
they have cast down our dwellings." It's foretelling a coming judgment
of the Babylonians upon Jerusalem. Now, hear the word of the Lord,
O you women. They are professional mourners
that would be hired for funerals to mourn for the dead, to give
the appearance that this was a very important person and that
the family has suffered a great loss. And so it's calling for
the professional women who mourn at funerals to now come and mourn
over the sad state of the spiritual condition of the people of God. So verse 20, now hear the word
of the Lord, O you women, and let your ear receive the word
of His mouth. Teach your daughters wailing,
and everyone her daughter a dirge. for death has come up through
our windows. It has entered our palaces to
cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the
town squares." This is all a foretelling of the coming judgment of the
Babylonians upon Jerusalem and the destruction. Verse 22, speak,
thus says the Lord. The corpses of men will fall
like dung on the open field, and like the sheaf after the
reaper, but no one will gather them." Now, my text that I thought
would be very pastoral, thus says the Lord, let not a wise
man boast of his wisdom. And let not the mighty man boast
of his might. Let not a rich man boast of his
riches. But let him who boasts of this,
that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises
lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth. For I
delight in these things, declares the Lord." The year was 627 B.C. and a twenty-year-old young man
was called by God into the prophetic office. He had been sovereignly
chosen and sent apart from his mother's womb for this sacred
mission to be a prophet in Israel. His name was Jeremiah. And for more than 40 years, he
would be the mouthpiece for God upon this earth to announce heaven's
message. His ministry was not easy, as
he was met with much opposition and persecution. He suffered
plots against him. He was arrested. He was beaten. He was put in
prison. He was put on trial, put into
stocks, and was thrown into a pit. And he was abducted and kidnapped
and taken out of the country to a foreign land where he died. All of this difficulty was the
result of his preaching to an unbelieving nation. Preaching
to an unconverted people who claim to know God, but in reality,
they did not know God. The people were plagued by rank
unbelief and flagrant idolatry and child sacrifice and deceptive
lies and malicious slander and religious hypocrisy. In short,
Jeremiah preached to a people who were stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in their hearts. And it was to this nation that
Jeremiah brought fourteen messages of condemnation and judgment. They began in chapter 2 and they
extend consecutively, nonstop, all the way through Jeremiah
chapter 29, fourteen individual woes upon the nation of Judah. And this particular text finds
itself in the midst of the third of those fourteen messages of
judgment. These two little verses, verses
23 and 24 that I originally picked out without being careful to
the larger context, these two little verses are like a tiny
island of mercy surrounded by a vast ocean of woe and wrath. These two verses are, in reality,
an impassioned evangelistic appeal to an unconverted nation to turn
from its false religion and to turn to God with repentant faith. Here we see that just as it was
in the day of Jeremiah, so it is that we live in a land of
unbelief and false religion. And even in the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ, there are so many who are religious but
lost, who do not know the Lord. And these verses are very applicable
and perhaps even here tonight. surely among a crowd this large,
there would be those of us who would claim to know God, would
claim to have a relationship with Him, but like Judah of old,
in reality not know the Lord. If that is the case with you,
I pray that tonight God will give you ears to hear and will
give you eyes to see and that the Spirit of God would make
known to you that in fact you need to come to know Jesus Christ
tonight as your Lord and Savior. As we look at verses 23 and 24
tonight, I want to break them out into three headings. And I want you to note first,
the speaker identified. That's how verse 23 begins, thus
says the Lord. And this is the familiar refrain
of the prophets. They were continually saying,
thus says the Lord. This refrain runs throughout
the entire Old Testament and throughout the book of Jeremiah,
and it even runs throughout this very chapter. You will note with
me, at the end of verse 3, it says that they do not know Me,
declares the Lord. And in verse 6, it says, they
refuse to know Me, declares the Lord. In verse 7, therefore thus
says the Lord. In verse 9, we read, declares
the Lord. In verse 12, we read, the mouth
of the Lord has spoken. In verse 15 we read, thus says
the Lord of hosts. In verse 17, thus says the Lord
of hosts. In verse 22, thus says the Lord. Verse 23, thus says the Lord. Verse 25, declares the Lord. Ten times in this one chapter. God identifies Himself as the
Speaker, He is the source of this message. And you will note
in your New American Standard translation that LORD is in all
capital letters. That signifies that this name
for the Lord is Jehovah. It is Yahweh and this proper
name comes from a Hebrew root that means to be. And it's in
the active form and literally it means that God was and He
is and He shall be forever. This name for God reveals that
He is self-existent, He is eternal. He is the uncreated One who has
created everything. He is self-dependent. He is not
dependent upon anything or anyone outside of Himself, and everything
that is outside of Himself is dependent upon Him. It means
that He is independent of all. He is autonomous. He is immutable. He is never increasing. He is
never decreasing. Theologians refer to this as
the attribute of a seity. which means that God is self-contained
and self-existent and not dependent upon anyone or anything outside
of Himself. He is entirely self-sufficient. And it is this self-sufficient
God who speaks in verse 23, and He makes His mind known to His
creatures by speaking. This God is a speaking God. He makes His mind known to His
creatures. Francis Schaeffer wrote a book
several years ago entitled, He Is There and He Is Not Silent. What God says is absolutely true. What God says is absolutely powerful. What God says is absolutely authoritative. He is the first and the last
word on any matter and what He says is the standard for all
reality. He is the highest arbitrator
and the highest judge by what He says. He speaks words of truth. And that is how God identifies
Himself as we begin looking at verse 23, and I bring this to
our attention that we would sense something of the weightiness
of these two verses, it is this self-sufficient, self-contained
God who now speaks through the prophet Isaiah. And we must hear
what this God has to say. And we must heed what He says. One ounce of what God has to
say is worth more than ten thousand tons of what any man has to say. The grass withers, the flower
fails away, but the Word of our Lord abides forever. And so I trust that you will
give attention to what the Lord says in these verses because
He is the Speaker. Second, I want you to note, not
only the Speaker addressed, but the self-reliant rebuked. To whom is God speaking? Who is He addressing in verses
23 and 24? And the answer is, those who
are trusting in Himself, in themselves. That's who God is addressing
in verse 23. He is...this self-sufficient God is addressing those who are
self-reliant in themselves, who are self-righteous, who boast
in their human wisdom, who boast in their human might and in their
own human riches. God is addressing those who do
not know Him and who do not understand Him and who do not obey Him and
who do not follow Him. And before we look at this in
verse 23, I want you to turn back to verse 3 and I want us
to be very clear about this tonight, to whom the Lord is speaking. In verse 3, God says, they do
not know Me, declares the Lord. That means they do not have a
saving relationship with Me. They know about Me, but they
do not know Me in their heart, experientially. spiritually. They are just going through the
empty motions of religiosity. They are just going to the temple.
They are bringing their sacrifices. They are singing their psalms.
They are going through the empty motions of external religion. But there is no heart reality. God says, they do not know Me. And then in verse 6 we read,
And the idea is, is that God manifests Himself through His
Word to them and they refuse to know Him. It is as though
they put their ear...fingers in their ears and turn a deaf
ear to God and refuse to know God. If you'll look at verse
25, this is a very important verse. The first verse immediately
after are two verses. In verse 25, we read, behold,
days are coming, declares the Lord, that I will punish all
who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised. What does that mean? That means
they are circumcised physically. On the eighth day, the male organ
of a baby boy is cut, signifying that he is a part of the chosen
nation of Israel and signifying that one day his own heart needs
to be cut by the sharp two-edged sword of the Word of God. They
are circumcised, as we read, and yet uncircumcised. What does
that mean? It means that their physical
body has been circumcised. But their heart has never been
circumcised. And circumcision in the Old Testament,
spiritual circumcision, is a picture of regeneration and the new birth,
to be born again. It becomes abundantly clear in
the next verse, verse 26. He concludes verse 26 by saying,
all the house of Israel is uncircumcised of heart. That means they've
never been born again. That means they are unregenerate.
It means that they are unconverted and do not know the Lord. So this is to whom the Lord is
speaking, to people who do not know Him, to people who refuse
to know Him, to religious people who have had the external sign
of circumcision. But their heart has never been
circumcised. And so God will now in verse
23 address three groups of people who have never been spiritually
circumcised. He begins in verse 23 by saying,
let not a wise man boast of his wisdom. This is the man who refuses
to trust the saving message that is in the Word of God. Instead, he turns to the wisdom
of the world. And when he says, let not a wise
man boast of his wisdom, he's not talking about the wisdom
of God. He is talking about the wisdom of this world. The wisdom
of this world has man in the very center. The wisdom of this
world teaches that man is the one who is in control of his
own destiny, that man is at the very center of the universe.
The wisdom of the world attempts to answer all of the big questions.
What is man? What is life? What is death? What is eternity? What is my
purpose? Why am I here? Wisdom from the
world answers all of those questions with the answer that it's all
about man. It is to promote man and to elevate
man. And we see in verse 14 the allusion
to this. It says that they have walked
after the stubbornness of their heart and after the bales as
their fathers taught them. You see, false religion was being
taught in the homes by the fathers. False religion to worship false
gods and idols was what was being pontificated in family times. And the children were being taught
false religion and they were growing up without a saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ. What is human wisdom? It originates
with man. It elevates man. It relies upon
man. It is man's solutions to man's
problems. It is man's perspective on life. It is man's perspective on God
and on eternity. It is drawn from man's own empty
wells, the polluted water of man's philosophies and ideologies. It is totally antithetical to
God's ways and it is temporal and it is a limited perspective
that distorts any sense of reality whatsoever. It is antithetical
to the ways of God. It is hostile to the ways of
God. James 3 verse 15 says, this wisdom
is earthly, natural and demonic. And Solomon said, there is a
way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the end
of death. And that is exactly where the
two tribes to the south in Judah were. They refused the witness
of God, the truth of God, and they turned to pagan deities
and they turned to the ways of the world. And God speaks to
them directly and says, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom
because it is utterly bankrupt, it makes no contribution whatsoever
to any sense of who God is or how to know God and it damns
the souls of men. That is what God has to say.
And we see Paul reverberate the very same thing in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, and I'm going to turn to it and read a couple of verses.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 19, Paul quoting Isaiah
29 verse 14, for it is written, God is the speaker, God speaks
in first person singular pronoun, I. I will destroy the wisdom
of the wise. God is not neutral about human
wisdom. God is not adopting a standoff
policy. God says, I'm going to utterly
destroy it. I am going to...to...to cast
it down." And he says, in the cleverness of the clever, I will
set aside. It's all talking about the wisdom
of the world. In Paul's case, it was coming
from Athens where all the philosophers of the world gathered at the
academy, where Plato and Socrates and the other great thinkers
was forty-five miles away. It was drifting into the church
at Corinth. And Paul, quoting this text,
says, don't you be buying human wisdom. God is on a collision
course with human wisdom and God will utterly destroy it. And so in verse 20 of 1 Corinthians
1, Paul now begins to taunt certain groups and he says, where is
the wise man? Referring to those who are wise
in the things of this world. Where is the scribe? One who
is a lawyer and who is used to working with human documents.
Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish? the wisdom of the world. And
God has made foolish the wisdom of the world in the cross of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And what is foolishness to the
world is the very wisdom of God and God has chosen to take the
simplicity of the gospel message in order to destroy the wisdom
of this world. So come back to Jeremiah 9 with
me. So, God begins by addressing the wise men of this world. And
He says, do not boast in human wisdom or in human reasoning. And then He adds, and let not
the mighty man boast of his might. This refers to those who are
in Judah. who rather than looking to heaven
for might and power, rather than looking to God to supply the
strength that they needed to move forward in life, instead
they look to their own resources. They look to their own abilities.
They look to their own power and might rather than trusting
in God. And what is being described here
is Israel, Judah, as they are trusting with the foreign nations
around them and the threatening of military attack, they are
trusting in their own chariots. They are trusting in their own
warriors. They are trusting in their own horses and in their
own shields and bows and arrows. They are trusting in their military
power and their political alliances with Egypt to protect them from
Babylon. And this was exclusive of trusting
in God alone. And so God speaks directly to
this nation that you are looking to yourselves rather than looking
to Me. The rest of the Bible rebukes
trusting in man's own might. Psalm 20 verse 7 says, some boast
in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name
of the Lord our God. Psalm 33 verse 17, a horse is
a false hope for victory, nor does it deliver anyone by its
great strength. And Psalm 147 verse 10, God does
not delight in the strength of the horse. And by that what He
means is not that we cannot have military arms for self-defense,
but what He means is our trust must not be in the horses and
in the military power, it must be in God who is the Lord over
heaven and earth. Psalm 21 verse 31, the horse
is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord. The Bible would have us to plan
and to make preparation and to take necessary steps for self-protection,
but the trust must not be in things, the trust must be in
God Himself. And so, in verse 23, as God is
speaking to the nation through the prophet Jeremiah, He has
rebuked the wise man who would trust in the worldly thinking
of this evil world system. And God rebukes the mighty man
who would boast of his own might, that he can solve his own problems. that He can appeal to what His
hands can make and work His way out of any dilemma. God says
it is an indication that you do not know Me because if you
knew Me, you would trust Me. If you knew Me, you would rely
upon Me. If you knew Me, you would look
to Me. But the mere fact that you are
looking to worldly wisdom and to worldly might and power is
but the indication that you have no relationship with Me whatsoever. It was an apostate nation that
had God in name only, but not in reality. And then at the end
of verse 23, he addresses a third group. And this third group are
those who boast in their human riches. The solution they pursue
to their problems is found in money. And so God must speak
to them as they are caught up in the things of this world,
worldly riches. He says, let not the rich man
boast in his riches. And to boast in something is
to put your trust in it. To boast in it, it is your idol. An idol is anything you love
more than God, serve more than God, or fear more than God and
they are looking to their riches to deliver them and God is rebuking
them in their trust in worldly manna. Ancient Israel trusted
in their gold. They trusted in their silver.
They trusted in their earthly treasures. They trusted in their
gems and their jewels. And they tried to bargain their
way out of trouble. They tried to buy foreign protection
rather than looking to God. A rich man is one who has much
money and who can solve his problems by simply redistributing his
money. And he tries to buy his way out. He puts his trust in his bank
account and he makes decisions based upon his money. There's nothing wrong with having
money, but in this case, money has a grip upon the hearts of
those who are in Judah. And it is clear evidence that
they do not know God and they are living for this world and
for the things of this world and riches here is in the climactic
position. Everything is building up to
the trust in money. Jesus said in Matthew 6 and verse
24, no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one
and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. It is impossible to put your
arm around God and put your arm around your money and to trust
both. God says, no, you must choose.
You must choose which master you will serve. Will you be the
servant of money or will you be My servant? In Matthew 19
verse 21, Jesus said to the rich young ruler, if you wish to be
complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor and you
will have treasure in heaven and come and follow Me. And the
rich young ruler would not loosen his grip on his material possessions
and on his money and walked away from the Savior because they
had become idols in his own heart. He loved money more than he loved
Jesus Christ. In Matthew 19 and verse 23, Jesus
said, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. than for a rich man to enter
the kingdom of God. And on another occasion, Jesus
addressed the vast multitudes that were following Him for all
the wrong reasons, for what they could get out of following Him. And in Luke 14 verse 33, Jesus
said, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his
possessions. Now what that does not mean is
that in order to become a follower of Jesus Christ, you have to
liquidate all of your possessions and give them all away because
then other believers would simply have to take care of you. What
this is saying is that when you become a follower of Christ,
you recognize that Jesus is Lord over your life and that all of
your possessions now belong to Him and you are simply a steward
of what has been entrusted to you. In other words, your car
is no longer your car, it's the Lord's car. And your house is
no longer your house, it's under new management. You are simply
a steward of God's house and your bank account is no longer
your bank account. It belongs to the Lord Jesus
Christ and you are placed here to be a manager of His resources
and to use them in a way that honors and glorifies Him. But these in verse 23. who boasts,
the rich man who boasts in his riches. He is living for this
world. He is living for money. He is
consumed with the love of money. He is not serving the Master
Jehovah. He is serving a different Master
which is His money. And so these are strong words
in verse 23, when we see them in the larger context. And I
must confess to you, when I chose to preach on these two verses
tonight, I had failed in the quickness of having to make a
decision to see the larger context of who the Lord is addressing
and why He is addressing them, and these are sobering words. that a man cannot live for money
and live for God. A man cannot rely on the wisdom
of this world and live for God. And a man cannot live by his
own strength or what strength could be given to him from other
people and live for God at the same time. God must be number
one in our lives if we are to know Him and to be a true believer
and follow Him. So this leads now to verse 24.
And I want to set before you the third heading, the salvation
needed. Verse 23, rebuke the self-reliant. Now in verse 24, this is in reality
an evangelistic appeal, throwing open the gates of paradise to
those who are in Judah, who do not know the Lord, who know about
the Lord, but do not know the Lord, it is an appeal to them
to now take that step of faith and come to know God within their
own heart and no longer play the game of religion, and no
longer go through the empty motions and giving a vain testimony And
so he says now in verse 24, but...and the word but is a strong contrast
to what preceded, but let him who boasts boast of this. There is a proper boast that
we are to have. We are all to be boasting and
someone or something. And this is someone who is none
other than the Lord Himself. He says, let him who boasts,
boast of this. And when he says boast, he means
what you look to, what you trust in, what you rely upon, what
you have affections for, what you love, what you praise. what captures your heart, what
dominates your life, let him who boasts boast of this, that
he understands and knows Me." And what God is saying, you must
come to know Me. You must enter into a personal
relationship with Me. You must enter into the experiential
knowledge of a saving relationship with Me. You must no longer have
just external religion. You must have an internal relationship
with Me. To know God is to enter into
a right relationship with God. It is a spiritual knowledge of
God. It is a heart knowledge of God. It is a supernatural knowledge
of God. It is not merely to know about
Him intellectually. but to actually know God experientially. Jesus said in John 17 and verse
3, this is eternal life. that they may know You, the one
true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Eternal life
is to know God. It is to be filled with the knowledge
experientially of God within your heart and within your soul. Two things I want to stress right
now. Number one, God must take the
initiative to make Himself known to us. We could never know God
unless God made Himself known to us. And God has made Himself
known to us in His Son, through His Word, by His Spirit. And that is how we have come
to know God. But God is sovereign in who comes to know Him. God
must reveal Himself and God must make Himself known to us. The second truth that I want
to stress here is that the reason...the reason that God makes Himself
known to us is that we would boast in Him. There is this proper
boast. And God has made Himself known
to us and we have come to know God so that we would make our
boast in God, that we would give praise to God and give our adoration
to God and magnify His name and give glory to this God. That's
why God has made Himself known to us. This is our ultimate priority. that we would give our praise
and worship and glory to God. The word praise in the Hebrew
means to boast in. to...to brag upon something. And that is what we do when we
worship God. We are boasting in God to God
before others. We are to be bragging on God
as we live our life. It's not just when we're in the
worship service, it's as we go to work, as we go to our home,
as we go to school, we are to be continually making our boast
in God and declaring His greatness to others and declaring to God
that He would hear from our own mouth and from our own lips how
great God is. This is the ultimate reason why
God has made Himself known to us. Now if we are to know God,
there are some things that we need to know about God. And so
he says in verse 24, let him who boasts boast of this, that
he understands and knows me, and what do we need to understand
about God? And what is it that we must know
about God as we would know God? And he gives us three attributes,
his lovingkindness, his justice, and his righteousness. First of all, his lovingkindness,
his lovingkindness. is His unconditional mercy, His
grace toward those who are so undeserving. It is His forgiving
love. It is His steadfast love, His
loyal love as God desires to shower His love upon those who
are so undeserving, who have no merit in their own. God desires
to love the unlovely. That is the loving kindness of
the Lord. But there is a problem, and the
problem is with the next two attributes, that God who is a
loving God is also a God of justice and a God of righteousness and
that God is just and righteous means that God must punish sin. God has assigned to His Law certain
punishments for when we break His Law and the wages of sin
is death. and the curse of the Law is death,
God can never overlook any sin. God can never just look the other
way. God can never just sweep sin
under the carpet and pretend like it never happened. No, God
is just, which means God must give a just recompense for either
the offense of His law or for keeping His law. That's what
it means, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It simply
means that the punishment fits the crime. It's not an eye for
a tooth or a tooth for an eye, but an eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth. When someone jaywalks across
the street, we don't give them the death penalty. And when someone
kills someone, we do not give them a fifty-dollar fine. The
punishment must match up with the offense of the crime and
because God is a just God, The punishment for our sin against
Him is death, eternal death, eternal judgment throughout all
of the ages to come and that God is righteous means that God
must inflict His justice upon those who have broken His Law. And so, here is the dilemma of
the ages. How God can be a God of love
who desires to demonstrate His love towards those who are unlovely,
those who have rebelled against Him, those who refuse to know
Him, those who are uncircumcised of heart, those who are stubborn,
those who are stiff-necked. God has love for them, yet God
is righteous and God is just. And God must punish the sinner. And so, here is the dilemma,
how can anyone come to know God? How can anyone enter into a relationship
with God who is just and who is righteous? And the answer
is found in the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And if you would, turn with me
to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30 and 31, and here we see the
Apostle Paul actually quoting this very verse, Jeremiah 9 verse
24 in the New Testament. And you'll see it in 1 Corinthians
1 verse 31, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. So what is
the reason that we would boast in the Lord? Well in verse 30
we read, by His doing, meaning by God the Father's doing, you
are in Christ Jesus. How is it that any of us here
tonight are found to be in Christ Jesus, it is entirely by God's
doing. He says, you are in Christ Jesus
who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Wisdom from God is like the topic
sentence over what follows. The wisdom from God refers to
the cross. The wisdom from God refers to
the sin-bearing, substitutionary death of Jesus Christ upon the
cross. And we know that from verse 25,
because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness
of God is stronger than men, verse 24, the cross is the power
of God and the wisdom of God. It's the power of God to save
us from His own wrath and it is the wisdom of God in that
it is the infinite genius of God that has designed the gospel
and has been the architect of this plan of salvation. Only
God could have designed the plan of salvation. Only God could
have conceived this plan from eternity past that He would send
His own Son into this world to be born of a virgin. Who among
us could have come up with that? and that He would live a sinless
and perfect life on our behalf, that He would go to the cross,
He would be lifted up to die and all the sins of all the people
who would ever believe upon Him would be transferred to Jesus
Christ and Him who knew no sin, God made to be sin for us. That
is the wisdom of God. That in the shedding of His blood,
He would appease the righteous wrath and anger of God toward
us. In the shedding of His blood,
He would reconcile us to God. Only God could have designed
the gospel. And that Jesus would be taken
down from the cross, buried in a borrowed tomb, and on the third
day, God would raise Him from the dead. Only God could have
designed this, that He would ascend back to heaven, He would
be seated at the right hand of God the Father, and whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. The utter
genius of God, the infinite wisdom of God, the perfection of His
design in the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And
so, when he says in verse 30, but by His doing you are in Christ
Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, these next three words
describe what has come to us because of the wisdom of God. Righteousness is imputed to us
in justification. Sanctification begins the moment
we believe and are put into Christ Jesus. We are set apart from
the power of sin. We are set apart from the dominating
power of sin and set apart to a new master, to Jesus Christ.
And redemption means that He has paid the price for our sins
and we now are fully and freely forgiven. The wisdom of God in
the cross. And so he now says in verse 31,
so that just as it is written, and he now appeals to the very
text that we have been looking at tonight, Jeremiah 9 verse
24, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. Boast in the wisdom
of God. Let Him boast in the cross of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let Him boast in the riches that
have come to us through the death of Jesus Christ, meaning redemption
and sanctification and righteousness. To boast in the Lord is to put
our trust in the Lord. It is to look to the Lord, to
commit our life to the Lord. It is to glory in the Lord. It
is to submit our life to the Lord. It is to surrender to the
Lord. It is to follow the Lord. It
is to live for the Lord. That's what it is to boast in
the Lord. And that our greatest heart's
desire is to live for Him and that our life is a living and
holy sacrifice offered up to God upon the altar of our presentation
of ourselves to God. And so tonight, we must be those
who boast in our Lord and boast in God specifically in the cross
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Well at the end of Jeremiah
9 and verse 24, God adds these final few words. He says at the
end of verse 24, for I delight in these things. These things
refer to His lovingkindness, His justice and His righteousness
and it looks ultimately to the cross of Jesus Christ in which
the love of God and the justice and the righteousness of God
meet Here in the cross we see the love of God demonstrated
to us. Romans 5 verse 8 says, God demonstrated
His own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. John 3, 16, for God so loved
the world. that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have
everlasting life. The greatest expression of the
love of God is seen at the cross as God offered up and delivered
up His own Son. for us that He would be our sin-bearer
and that He would absorb the wrath of God due us for our sins. It is the greatest display of
the love of God at Calvary's cross. But it is also the greatest
display of the justice of God and of the righteousness of God
because there at the cross, God punished our sin. There at the
cross, God took our sin and laid them upon the innocent sin-bearer,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who became the Lamb of God who took away
the sin of the world. And as Jesus was made sin for
us upon the cross, God the Father unleashed all of the fury of
His wrath upon His own darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God
unleashed all of the mighty fury and vengeance that was deserving
you and me in an eternity in hell. In a moment, God pulled
back the veil of heaven and poured out the fury of His wrath upon
His own Son and He crushed Him upon the cross. The justice of
God and the righteousness of God was met at the cross. God did not overlook our sin. God did not look the other way.
God dealt with our sin in full at the cross. Jesus paid for
every offense. He paid for every transgression.
He paid for every act of disobedience. He paid for every foul heart
motive. He took the entire load upon
Himself as He hung upon that cross and suffered under the
judgment of God for us. That is why there is now therefore
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that
is why Paul says that the ultimate fulfillment of verse 24 is that
the lovingkindness and the justice and the righteousness of God,
they all meet at the cross. No sin in the history of the
world will ever go unpunished by God in full. Every sin that
you have ever committed will be paid to the fullest extent
of the law, whether you are a believer or an unbeliever. Every sin will
either be punished in hell or punished in Christ upon the cross. But no sin will ever be overlooked
by a just and righteous God in heaven. who gives His lovingkindness
to those who know Him, to those who enter into a right relationship
with Him through His Son by faith. So as we bring this message to
conclusion, how should we respond to this passage? What should
be our response? And I want to conclude by giving
you a couple words. Number one is realization. We
must have the realization that just as it was in the land of
Judah so long ago, so it is in our land today, so it is in churches
today, the realization that there are countless multitudes of religious
people who do not know God. who are just like Israel of old,
simply going through the motions of external religiosity but in
their heart of hearts have never been born again, their hearts
have never been circumcised, they have never come to the end
of themselves and entrusted themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. In
fact, Israel was the most religious nation in the history of the
world and they did not know God. So there must be this realization
with us tonight that it is...that there are countless multitudes
even tonight of people who are religious, who are in church,
who are in mosques, who are in synagogues, who are around the
world in cults and in false religions who do not know God. They are sincere but sincerely
wrong. Second is the word examination. Every one of us tonight should
examine ourselves whether we are in the faith. This passage calls for our own
self-examination, to audit our own soul whether we know God
or not. Are you found in verse 23 or
are you found in verse 24? Are you one who boasts in wisdom and boasts in might
and boasts in riches? Or are you tonight one who boasts
in God and boasts in the Lord?" Every true believer is one who
boasts in God and gives glory to God. So examine yourself. Does this describe you? Do you
know God? Third, adoration. We should realize
that God has revealed Himself to us and made Himself known
so that we would praise Him, so that we would boast in Him,
so that we would give Him the glory that is due Him alone,
that the highest purpose for our being here upon this earth
is soli deo gloria, for the glory of God alone. Let us be those
who open our mouth, who lift up our praises, who give the
glory to the one to whom it rightly belongs, to God in heaven. And fourth and finally, submission. Could it be that you find yourself
here tonight and you've come to the realization that you do
not know God in a personal saving relationship? Then tonight I
call you and I invite you to come to His Son, Jesus Christ,
by faith. Jesus said, I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but
through Me. And the only way to know God
is to come to His Son, Jesus Christ, and to repent of your
sins and to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and to embrace
Him by faith. And Jesus then introduces us
into a saving relationship with His Father. But we cannot come
to the Father by any other means other than coming through the
Lord Jesus Christ. So if you have never believed
upon Jesus Christ, if you have never in your heart of hearts
come to know Him, then I urge you to come now. Come with your
whole heart. Come with a decisive step of
faith and entrust your soul to Jesus Christ. Come to Him knowing
that He receives those who come to Him by faith. Humble yourself,
submit to His lordship, trust in Him and He will receive you
and you will enter in to a personal saving relationship with God
the Father and you will be one in whom the Lord will delight. And He will live inside of you
and He will be with you. and He will never leave you nor
forsake you. And one day when you die, or
one day when Christ returns, He will take you to the Father's
house and there you will be in His immediate presence throughout
all of the ages to come." Israel needed...Judah needed to come
to know God. May we all know God within our
heart tonight through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, thank You
for the record of Your Word. Thank You that You are a speaking
God and that You have spoken to us through the prophets. You
have spoken to us through the scriptures. You have initiated
making Yourself known to us and we praise You that by the work
of Your Holy Spirit, You have opened our eyes. to understand
who You are and You have drawn us into a relationship with Yourself
through Your Son. We give You praise tonight. We
make our boast in You tonight. We glory in You tonight. We magnify Your name above every
other name. We declare to you that we believe
that our life's purpose is to live for your glory and to make
our boast in you that all around us would hear, but more than
that, that it would be a sweet-smelling aroma that would arise upward
to you and that you would take great pleasure in our bragging
in you and our boast in you. We pray this in the mighty name
of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.