look forward to the services that passage we were just looking
at in Isaiah 42 let me just read the next three
verses without any comment to open the service now Isaiah 42
verse 1 he shall not cry nor lift up his voice or cause
his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall
he not break, and a smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall
bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail, he shall not
fail, nor be discouraged. Till he has said judgment in
the earth and the aisles shall wait for his law. Let's stand
together. Tom's going to come and lead
us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Turn with me please in the word
of God to Acts chapter 26. This is the Apostle Paul standing
before King Agrippa. and declaring the gospel to him.
Acts 26, and we'll begin at verse 25.
Festus, the governor, he said, has declared Paul to be out of
his mind and bat. We've been called that a few
times ourselves, haven't we? We're in good company. But Paul
said, I'm not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words
of truth and soberness. for the king knoweth of these
things before whom also I speak freely
for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from
him for this thing was not done in a corner Paul then asks Agrippa the question,
King Agrippa believest thou of the prophets? I know that thou
believest. I know you believe what they've
said and what they've done. And Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And I want to declare this. Almost
a Christian is still a lost soul. and damn to hell. You can believe
doctrine, you can attend a gospel church, you can do all those
things, but almost believing will not get it done. That's
the reason we have to have a love for the gospel. A love for the
gospel. And I pray this morning as it's
declared that God would convict us to love His gospel of Christ
and His grace. Let us try to pray. Lord, we've come here this morning knowing that we are needy people
and the greatest need we have is to know that our sins are
forgiven and that we are in Christ and to know that Christ has performed
everything necessary for the salvation of our souls. We pray you'll be with our brother
and every gospel preacher wherever your people are that you would
speak to his heart. Give him words to say to us from
your word. And allow him by your spirit
to declare Christ and him crucified. Lord, as your people, we pray,
pray, O Lord, that you would give us the ability to believe
it, and to rejoice in it, and to love it. We ask these things
for your glory. Amen. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Jeremiah chapter 9. We live in a world where men
by nature, including ourselves, want to glory in the achievements
of men. We just have a hard time keeping
quiet when we accomplish something, don't we? We want to call attention
to ourselves. We want to glory in our achievements. The question that I want to ask
this morning is, what is it that God glories in and what is it
that He's pleased that we glory in? And the answer to that question
is here in these two verses of Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 23
and 24. And I want to take just a moment,
particularly for our young people. Young people pay special attention
to what I'm about to tell you. Because the first part of this
verse is critically important. Thus saith the Lord. This world, those are awfully
high, aren't they? Did they just come on by themselves?
Wayne, would you turn those off, please? I think we've got them
on high speed and that's not going to work. The world is full of men with
opinions. It's interesting that the word
heresy in the scripture literally translated means opinion. And the Lord said that it is
necessary that heresies be among you in order that those who are
approved of God might be made manifest. So there's lots of
opinions. The political pundits, they have
their opinions. Now you may have a favored politician,
you may have a favored political position, but there are no absolute
truths when it comes to politics. You understand that? There's
a give and take, and I'm thankful for the system that we have.
As much as I may disagree with some of the things that go on
on the other side, it's probably the best system
the world's known as far as being able to check and balance extremes. There are no absolute answers
given by the politicians. They can talk and haggle and
discuss and share their opinions and in the end, the Lord is going
to have his way. I'm speaking particularly to
young people right now. Listen to me. This is critically
important. I hope that I think most of our
adults here, I know the believing adults here, understand the truth
of what I'm saying. The educators, young people,
you're going to go off to college and the uh... uh... the pseudo
intellectual professors and that's all they are they're professing
themselves to be intelligent and they're calling into question
the very truth of god and they will make you to feel as if you
are some sort of backwoods neanderthal if you don't if you if you give loyalty or belief to the Word
of God. But mark it down, they only have
opinions. That's all they've got, is just
opinions. And it's necessary that you hear
those opinions so that if you're approved of God, you'll be made
manifest because you'll have to take a stand against those
opinions. The philosophers of this world
and the psychologists of this world all have their opinions,
don't they? They've all got one view or another
view and they're all discussing and pushing for their position
to be the right position. The truth is that there are no
absolute truths among the philosophers of this world any more than there
is among the educators or the politicians. The only place that
you can go and know that this is absolutely true No ifs, ands,
or buts about it. These are words to live and words
to die by. Is the inerrant, infallible,
inspired Word of God. Am I here to convince you that
this book is that? No. But I'm here to tell you
that it is. And I pray that the Holy Spirit
would convince you that what I'm telling you is true. Thus
saith the Lord. What power! What confidence we
have the Word of God. Now I know what the world says,
well you know this book's been translated and passed down from
generation to generation and it may contain the Word of God
but you can't say that it is the infallible verbatim Word
of God. Is God not capable of preserving
the integrity of His Word from generation to generation? You
bet He is. There's no confidence to be had
in the opinions of men. There's none. The economists of this world
don't have any absolute answers. Oh, there's lots of different
Economic opinions, isn't there? Different views and different
ideas about how to improve the economy and how to make things
more prosperous. But again, they're just guessing. They're kind of like the weather
guessers. They're just shooting in the
dark, hoping to hit the target once in a while. And that's the
only thing that men can do. That's the only thing men can
do. What confidence, what power,
what hope, what peace we have in being able to say, thus saith
the Lord. The religious leaders of this
world don't have an answer. They'll twist and pervert this
word and make it to mean something it doesn't say. It says what
it means and it means what it says. It's not complicated. The Word
of God is not some deep, dark, difficult, mysterious truth that
can only be discerned by the super-spiritual and the well-educated. The Word of God is simple. It's
men that complicate it. It's clear. It just means what
it says. I had a discussion with a man
one time about passage in Acts where it says, how does that
verse say it? It says, to as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. To as many as were ordained to
eternal life believed. Now this was a well-educated
man. And I brought that verse up in defense of the gospel and
he said, it's interesting to me that you should bring that
verse up. I teach Sunday school in my church. This was on a Sunday
afternoon. He said, just this morning, my
adult Sunday school class spent the entire hour trying to understand
what that verse means. To as many as were ordained to
eternal life believed, He said, we never could understand it. Well, it's because it speaks
contrary to what they've accepted as being true, which is a contradiction
to the gospel. God loves everybody. Christ died
for everybody. God wants everybody to be saved.
Everybody's got a free will. So it can't mean what it says. Well, throw out your presuppositions
and just read it for what it says, and it means what it says.
It just means what it says. And that's true of all the Word
of God, young people. Thus saith the Lord. And that's
all I want a preacher to tell me. I want a preacher to preach
to me. People say, well, don't preach to me. You're being preachy
now. No, preach to me. As long as you're telling me
what God says, preach to me. Preach it without apology. Preach
it with authority. Declare it for what it says.
It's the only place I can go. It's the only hope I have. Nobody
else has got any answers for me. And they don't. And if you haven't figured that
out yet, you're either very young or very stupid. Nobody's got
any answers. Thus saith the Lord." Oh, I'm
so glad for the clarity. I'm so glad for the simplicity. I just, I can be satisfied with
knowing that this is what God says. How often times that phrase
is used in the Word of God. And it's not your place or my
place to convince somebody that this is the Word of God. We just
declare it. And we're confident that God's
sheep will hear it and they'll believe it. Well, what does he say here?
This phrase is often found in the Word of God. Thus saith the
Lord. You see it in the previous verse.
Look at verse 22. Speak, thus saith the Lord. This is what God says. And whatever
opinion you have or anyone else has that's contrary to what God
says, get rid of it. Just get rid of it. Just believe
God. Let not. Now there's two things
to be heard in those two words. Don't let this happen to you
and don't be intimidated or influenced by those who are boasting in
their wisdom and in their power and in their wealth. So let not,
child of God. Child of God? Let not the wise
man boast in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast
in his might. Let not the rich man boast in
his wealth. Don't glory in it. Don't boast in it. That's what it is. Don't do it
for yourself and don't be influenced or intimidated by those who are
doing it. It's vain glory. It's just vain glory. It's empty
glory. It's what men do in order to
impress other men. It's what men do in order to
try to achieve some level of hope and comfort and power and
strength in this world when they don't know God. It's what men
do. They glory in their own achievements. They glory in their own accomplishments. Remember that everything you have, God
gave you. Maybe you are smarter than the
average person. Yeah, that'd be the case. And
there are, there's levels of intelligence. Levels of this
word wise in our verse means skillful. So it doesn't just
have to do with intellect. It has to do with ability and
skill. Maybe you're an accomplished
musician. Maybe you're a good artist. Maybe
you're exceptionally good at what you do. That's great. Who
maketh thee to differ? What do you have that you did
not receive? Don't glory in it as if you achieved
it on your own. God gave it to you. Don't try
to impress men with it. Give God the glory for it. Thus
saith the Lord, let not, let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom. Men use, and again young people,
men will use their education in order to try to intimidate
and impress other men. And they'll hang their PhDs out
and they'll use language that you don't know in order to impress
you. And preachers are the worst at
doing that. Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom. nor the mighty man, glory in
his might, the strong man." If you have physical strength, enjoy
it. I promise you it's not going
to last. Enjoy the few days of it you
have. It's not going to last. It's
going to fade. You're going to lose it. Oh,
but men do, don't they? They glory in their might. Whether it be physical might
or political might or social might, whatever the power they
have, they glory in their power. And God's saying, don't you do
it and don't be impressed or intimidated by those who would
do it in order to try to control you or whatever, whatever motive
they might have. It's just vain glory. It's just
men being men. There's nothing to it. There's no substance to it. It's
a shadow. It's what men do when they don't
know God. we're going to get to what it
is that we are to glory in because the next verse tells us what
we are to glory in but he's telling us first of all what not to glory
in let not the rich man glory in his wealth oh the deceitfulness
of riches the scripture says you brought nothing into this
world and it is certain that you will take nothing out of
it You came in naked, you're gonna go out naked. Oh, but money is such a, and
we're all, relative to the rest of the world and relative to
most every other generation, we're all very wealthy. People
generally in the world and in previous generations had to scrape
to get their next meal. You don't do that. The deceitfulness of riches,
the scripture calls it. Why is it called the deceitfulness
of riches? Well, when something's deceiving
you, it's promising you something that it can't deliver. Isn't
that the case? And you ask what money does?
It promises you power, it promises you popularity, it promises you
pleasure, and it delivers those things on a very low level. But why is it that we're drawn
to power, popularity, and pleasure? Because we're trying to find
satisfaction. We're trying to find true hope.
We're trying to find peace. We're trying to find contentment. And the riches don't deliver
them. They're deceitful. You can't
ever get enough, can you? Can't ever get enough. And so
you fall into the trap of addiction. And that's what an addiction
is, isn't it? You gotta have more and more and it never satisfies,
so you keep going back to the well and you're never content. That the Lord, the biggest frustration
that the child of God has in this world, the biggest frustration
that they have, is that they want to know Christ in the fullness
of His glory, and they can't. They want to see the fullness
of Him. That's why for the child of God to die is game. To go and be with the Lord. I
was talking to Donny Bell the other day and he said, you know,
as much as I love and miss Mary and he misses her terribly. He
said, the main reason I want to go to heaven is to see Christ. To see Christ. It does not yet
appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear,
we shall see him as he is and be made like him. And that's
our frustration, isn't it? And so what does Paul tell us
in the book of Colossians? He says, set your affections,
your mind, your desires on things above, where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God, not on the things of the earth. Be addicted to Christ. You can't ever get enough of
Him. And you just keep going back for more. Until finally, one day, we shed
this flesh and we're finally, fully, completely satisfied in
His presence. What the Lord is saying is these
things are of the world. These things are earthy Wisdom? He's not talking about
godly wisdom. He's just talking about intelligence
and skill and those kind of things. Might? Power? Not God's power,
but worldly power. Wealth? These things are of the
world. They don't satisfy. Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter
6, they that would be rich fall into temptation and a snare. Materialism, I've told you this
before, you know it's true. Materialism has absolutely nothing
to do with how much you've got in your bank account. It's a
condition of the heart. It's not money that's the root
of all evil, it's the love of it. It's glorying in it. That's what it is. That's what
he's saying. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. And those that would be rich,
that desire the things of this world, more than Christ, and
unto the many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction
and perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil, which while some covered it after, they have
erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows." Paul goes on in 1 Timothy chapter
6 to say, charge them, and here I am speaking for God, charge
them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded
or trust in the uncertainty of riches but that they put their
trust in the living God. Thus saith the Lord. And God's
people say, Amen. I need to hear that. I need to
hear that. There's something in my flesh
that's drawn to these worldly comforts. And there's certainly
a whole spirit of that in the world in which I live. And I
need to be reminded of the truth. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. So if we're not to glory in the
things that everybody else glories in, what are we to glory in?
Well, here it is. Look at verse 24. But let him
that glorieth glory in this. What does God say we should glory
in? That he understandeth and knoweth
Me. Without getting real technical
about the language, the understandeth and knoweth are infinitive verbs
which would be better translated with ing at the end rather than
eth. That's old English eth. It means
that we are in the process of understanding, that we are in
the process of knowing. It's what Paul was talking about
in Philippians chapter 3 when he said, I've not yet apprehended
that which has apprehended me. He said, yea, doubtless I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ
my Lord. I count everything but loss that
I might know Him. He's my glory. And I want to
glory in understanding and knowing Him, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that
I might win Christ." You know, you listen to religious
people talk about what they gave up for Jesus. And you can tell from their conversation
that, boy, they'd really like to have some of that back. I've never wanted dung back. Just never wanted it back. You haven't either, have you? You don't feel a sense of loss
when it goes away. I do count the bedung that I
might win Christ." Here's what we glory in. We glory in understanding
and knowing Him. Paul went on in that same passage
to say, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness
which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. Oh, that's what I want to know,
that I may know him. Paul wrote this towards the end
of his life. You say, but Apostle Paul, don't you know God? That's
what he's talking about. This is what we glory in, that
he might continue to understand and continue to know Him better. And Paul said that I might know
Him and the power of His resurrection. Oh, that I could be more thoroughly
convinced that when the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from
the dead, that I was in Him. and that he was the firstborn
among many brethren, and that he was offered up for our offenses
and raised again because of our justification. I've been justified through the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I've been raised. That's
what he said in Colossians chapter 3. That verse I quoted a while
ago where it says, set your affections on things above where Christ
is. The very first part of that, if you be dead in Christ, if
you be dead in Christ, if when Christ died on Calvary's cross,
you died in him and you were raised in him, then set your
affections on him for you're in him now. The only hope we
have is to be in him. The fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I may
attain to the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained,
either were already perfect. But I follow after, if that I
may be apprehended by that which also has apprehended me." I may
apprehend that which has also apprehended me. I'm not there
yet. Brethren, I count myself not
to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. Forgetting those
things which are behind. What things? The things that
men glory in. the wisdom, the power, the strength,
the money, the wealth, the worldly wise, all those things that the
men of this world, that's all they've got. It's all they've
got. Of course they're going to glory
in it. It's the best they're ever going to have. It's the
only thing they have. What's the Lord saying? It's not all
you've got. You've got something so much better. Forgetting those
things which are behind, I press towards the prize of the high
calling in Christ Jesus. Reaching forth to those things
which are before. But let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he is in the process of understanding better and better
and knowing better and better what? That I am the Lord. Do you know that? Do you understand
that the Lord Jesus Christ is God? that He's not like you and me
in any way. He's the uncreated, self-existent
God of glory. He spoke all this that we see
into creation. He sustains it and He's going
to bring it to its end for His glory. He's God. All that you could understand
and believe, better and better, That I am the Lord. I am God. And you're not. We live in a politically correct
society where everybody's religion is to be respected. Well, let
me say this, I respect everybody's right to have whatever opinion
they want to have. And I'll fight for that right.
You got the right to be wrong. But know this, that every God
outside of the God of Scripture, the God revealing himself here,
is a figment of your imagination. The world has never been as given
over to idolatry as it is today. Men are as idolatrous. We're not evolving, we're devolving. And men are worse today than
they've ever been when it comes to worshiping a false god. The motivation behind Greek mythology
was in order to try to reconcile the idea that there is a God,
which is clear to all men's conscience that there is a God. So how do
we reconcile the existence of supernatural power, with men
who appear to be able to have a free will and do what they
want. And so the whole convoluted system
of Greek mythology was an attempt on man's part to try to reconcile
these two irreconcilable forces, man's free will and an omnipotent
God. And so you've got gods fighting
each other and gods fighting men, and in the end, man wins. You say, where are you going
with that, preacher? All we've done today is change
Zeus's name to Jesus. That's all we've done. We're
just as idolatrous as those who bowed to the Greek gods and goddesses
2,000 years ago. There's no difference. Men are
still trying to reconcile in their minds the conflict that
exists between man's free will and God's omnipotence. And since
they can't, they've come up with a really complicated religious
system and it is idolatry. Glory in this! That you are in
the process of understanding and you are in the process of
knowing that I am the Lord. That I bow to no man. I have
done whatsoever I will. No man can stay my hand or say
unto me, what doest thou? Don't try to reconcile your will
with my will. For my will is sovereign. My will is omnipotent. My will prevails in all things. I am the Lord. That is my name. I will not share
my glory with another." That's what he said. And God's people
say, Amen! Amen! That's my hope! My hope is that He's on His throne.
My hope is that He's in control. Glory in this. Glory in this. That I've given you the grace
and the light to have some understanding. And that your understanding is
growing. And that your knowledge is growing. in knowing that I
am the Lord and I exercise. You see that word? Now that's
just the opposite of those two words I pointed out a while ago,
understanding and knowledge. Those were in the imperfect,
I mean infinitive, they were in the process, I-N-G. This is
the perfect tense. Now what that simply means is
it's completely done. The perfect tense is an action
completed never to be repeated. When God says, I exercise, he's
not saying I am exercising or I'm in the process of working
it out. What he's saying is I've already
done it. It's finished. I've completed
it. It's done. There's nothing more
to do. You can't fix it. You can't add
to it. You can't take away from it.
You can't change it. It's done. What's done? What's done? I exercise. Well, here it is. Look. Loving
kindness. Now, that's the Old Testament
word for grace. The word grace is found very
few times in the Old Testament, but loving kindness is found
many times, and that's the Old Testament word for grace. Now
who's in need of grace? Who's in need of grace? The Lord Jesus Christ said, when
the spirit of truth comes, he will convict the world of sin,
of righteousness, and of judgment. And those three things are what,
they're just in a little different order, but they're right here
in this verse. of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness
because I go to my father, and of judgment because the prince
of this world is judged. And what the Lord is saying here
is, I have exercised grace, loving kindness towards sinners who
didn't believe on me. But now they do. And they came
to believe by grace, by my loving kindness. I exercised it. It's set. It's finished. It's done. And look what else
he says. And of judgment. Of judgment. When God exercises judgment,
He is exercising justice, as we saw in the previous hour.
And justice in the court of God means not that there was a loophole
found in the law. You know, cases are tried today
and we think, well, justice wasn't served. Or we think, well, the
full penalty of the law wasn't exercised. God's not that way.
When God exercises judgment, and that's what He's saying He
does here, glory in this, that I have exercised loving kindness,
grace towards sinners, and judgment That means that the full penalty
of the law was met. And that's exactly what happened.
When the Lord Jesus Christ was suspended between heaven and
earth, when He hung on Calvary's cross and the full power of God's
wrath was rained down from heaven, the fire of God's justice, His
judgment was exercised against Christ so that sin was paid for
and God was satisfied. I shall see the travail of His
soul and shall be satisfied. Oh, I'm so glad. Glory in this. Don't glory in your wisdom, your
skill. Don't glory in your might, your
power. Don't glory in your wealth, your riches. Glory in this, that
you are understanding and that you are knowing, little by little,
line by line, day by day, moment by moment. that I've shown grace to sinners,
that I've exercised judgment, and that I've exercised, look
at the last one, righteousness. He will convict the world of
sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of righteousness, why? Because I go to my Father. The
Lord Jesus Christ was received back into glory and is seated
at the right hand of God. Now this is all under the heading,
thus saith the Lord. This is what God says. Here's
what you glory in. Glory in the fact that you have
an advocate with the Father. Glory in the fact that there
is one. who has met the demands of the
law and offered himself up to God on your behalf as your righteousness. David said, I'll speak of no
other righteousness other than thy righteousness. Oh, our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. We have no righteousness, do
we? Glory in this. If any man sins, he has an advocate
with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous one. I am the Lord, which exercise,
past tense, perfect tense, done, grace, judgment, and righteousness
in the earth. In the earth, I'm so glad that's
there, because that's where I live. That's where you live. This isn't
something that was just done in heaven. Yes, God settled it
in heaven in the eternal decrees of His own purpose, but He fulfilled
it in the earth for earthlings, for men of flesh like you and
me. Glory in this. Oh, this is worth
glorying in, isn't it? It makes, this makes the glorying
of men look foolish, doesn't it? Doesn't it? Glory in this. For in these things, for in these
things I delight, saith the Lord. I close with a simple question.
Are you able to delight in the same thing that God delights
in? Are you? The unbeliever's not. He delights
in his wisdom. He delights in his strength.
He delights in his riches. He delights in his power. He
delights in his influence. He delights in his glory. God
doesn't delight in that. Are you able to delight yourself
in that which delights God? That's what faith does. Let's
pray. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
You would minister grace to our hearts by Your Spirit according
to Thy Word, for we ask it in Christ's name. number 77 in the softback teminal. Let's stand.