Let's open our Bibles back to
Jeremiah chapter nine. Jeremiah chapter nine. I pray
the Lord would enable us to just look at these two verses of scripture
this evening. Verse 23, again we read, thus
saith the Lord. These are the words of our Lord. I can't imagine that we could
stand on any firmer ground than this. Thus saith the Lord. And this is what he says. Let
not the wise man glory in his wisdom. See that in his wisdom. Scripture declares this, look
at, turn to 1 Corinthians, hold your place there, and turn to
1 Corinthians chapter one. Beginning with verse 18. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise. I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? You know, the gospel, it exposes
the wisdom of this world for what it truly is. The wisdom
of this world is nothing but foolishness. Read on here in
verse 21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, The world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. This world
with all of its earthly wisdom cannot and will not recognize
the true and living God. Yet God in his wisdom, true wisdom,
was pleased. He was pleased to reveal himself
and his salvation, that which was purchased by the Lord Jesus
Christ to his people through the very
means that this world calls foolishness, which is nothing more, nothing
less than the preaching of the gospel. And all the same time, while
the wise men of this world are left to perish in their sin,
being ignorant of God's righteousness, being ignorant of God, and the
gospel they despise, this very gospel that this world despises,
has become the power of God unto salvation for His people. You
know, that seems like a pretty good reason. not to trust in
our own wisdom. Our own wisdom is nothing but
foolishness. But rather, rather we would trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our wisdom. And back to our text here in
Jeremiah 9, we read next, let not the mighty man glory in his
might, his strength, In the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar, he
had a dream, and that dream scared him. Scripture says it made him
afraid. He was troubled. He was troubled
by what he had seen. And all those wise men that came
to interpret the dream couldn't, not until Daniel came. Nebuchadnezzar, he said, there
was a tree in the midst of the earth, and it was a great tree. The height of it was great. It
reached to the heavens. And the leaves of it were fair. We admire these trees this time
of year, just how beautiful they are. But it says that the leaves
were fair. And it bared much fruit, this
tree, this great tree. And it provided shade. for all the animals in the field,
and the birds could go and nest in it. It was a great, great
tree. But then he said a watchman came
from heaven, and he cut it down. He cut that great tree down at
the stump. And again, Daniel was the only
one who was able to interpret this dream. And Daniel said to
the king, this is a prophecy about you. You're grown and become
strong. Your greatness reaches to the
heavens. Turn to Daniel 4. Turn over just
a few pages to Daniel chapter 4. Look beginning with verse 29. At the end of 12 months, Daniel
told him what was going to happen. At the end of 12 months, he walked
in to the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. And the king spake. Listen to what he said here.
He said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house
of the kingdom by my might, of my power, and for the honor of
my majesty. And while the word was in the
king's mouth, he didn't even finish his sentence. While the
word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven
saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom
is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from
men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field.
They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen. Seven times shall pass
over thee, until thou knowest that the Most High ruleth in
the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. And
the same hour was this thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar.
And he was driven from men, and he did eat grass as oxen, and
his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown out
like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird's claws." I think what he said there, this great Babylon, He'd already
been warned about it. This great Babylon that I have
built, how'd he build it? By his might. That's what he
thought. That's what he was convinced
of. By his might, by his power, by his strength. And for this
reason, he said, for the honor of my majesty, let not the mighty man glory
in his might, let not the strong man glory in his strength. And
we read what happened there, didn't we? When those words come
out of his mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, O King Nebuchadnezzar,
thy kingdom is departed from thee. And he dwelt among the
beasts of the field, ate grass like an ox, his hair grew out
like those eagles' feathers, nails like birds' claws, but
after seven years, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, And it
says his understanding returned to him. And listen to what he
says now. He's not taken up with his might.
He's not taken up with his strength. He says this. He says, I bless the Most High. I bless
the Most High and praise Him who liveth forever and ever. the eternal God of heaven. He
said His dominion, Almighty God's dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom is from generation
to generation. And all the inhabitants of the
earth, and I believe Nebuchadnezzar was speaking of himself here
when he said this, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. None can say unto him, what doest
thou? None can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?
Oh, let not the mighty man glory in his might. You know, scripture
declares this, that our Lord, he's the mighty God. There's only one that's mighty,
and that's Almighty God. Well, back to our text again
here in Jeremiah. Jeremiah 9, verse 23. Let not
the rich man, there's three men here, let not the rich man glory
in his riches. Again, it's his riches, his own
riches, what he gets by his own doing. Look at Isaiah. Turn back a book there to Isaiah
39. Isaiah 39, look beginning with
verse one. It says, at that time, Merodoic Beladon, the son of
Beladon, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah
for he had heard that he had been sick and he was recovered. And Hezekiah was glad of them
and he showed them the house of his precious thing. You note again there, these are
his precious things. The silver and the gold and the
spices and the precious ointment and all the house of his armor,
all that was found in his treasures, there was nothing in his house
nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not. He
was pretty proud of these things. Look here, verse three. Then
came Isaiah the prophet unto King Hezekiah, and he said unto
him, What said these men? And from whence came they unto
thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto
me, even from Babylon. And then he said, what have they
seen in thy house? And Hezekiah answered, all that
is in my house have they seen. There is nothing among my treasures
that I have not showed them. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah,
hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days come
that all that is in thy house and that which thy fathers have
laid up in store until this day, it's all gonna be carried off
to Babylon, and nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And
if that wasn't enough, not all of his wealth, look here, verse
seven, and thy sons, thy sons that shall issue from thee, which
thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they shall be
eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Hezekiah gloried
in his riches. He wanted these men to see everything
that he had. And the Lord took it all away. His treasures were taken away. You know, when the Lord Jesus
Christ met with that rich young ruler, he said, if you'd be perfect,
you go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor. And when you do that, you'll
have treasure in heaven. What do we read about that young
man? It said he went away sorrowful,
for he had great possessions. Great possessions compared to
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is wealth, wealth untold. Now, these scriptures don't say
there's anything wrong with with wisdom. We'd be thankful to have
wisdom. Nothing wrong with riches, nothing
wrong with strength. But this is the command, to not
glory in these things. And that word glory, it means
to honor. It means to exalt, to rejoice,
to take great pride in, It can even mean this, to worship those
things. Thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom. That could be natural wisdom.
That could be even the knowledge of God's word. To take pride. We've heard that pride of grace. Let not the mighty man glory
in his might. His natural strength, even men
brag of moral strength and being able to overcome great temptations.
We don't glory in these things. Listen, any strength we have,
it comes from the Lord. Paul didn't say this. He didn't
say, I can do all things through my own strength. No. He said, I can do all things
through Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ who strengthens me. Paul,
writing to the Corinthians, he said, who maketh thee, think
about that, who maketh thee to differ one from another? And
what hast thou, truly, what do we have that we didn't receive,
that hasn't been given to us? And why do you glory as if you
received it not? Why do you carry on like it's
something that you earned? let not the rich man glory in
his riches. David wrote this in Psalm 49,
they that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude
of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother,
nor give to God a ransom for him. He can't pay the redemption,
no matter how much wealth a man has, he cannot pay the redemption
price. The Lord Jesus Christ is precious. Thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. Here's one thing all three of
these have in common. They all perish. Every last one
of them will perish. Wisdom, wisdom. Ecclesiastes
2.16 says this, the wise man dies as the fool. There's no difference in the
grade between the wise man and the foolish man. What about might? What about strength? I was thinking
about this last night. I can recall my grandpa. And he was a strong, strong man. And I remember one time watching
him move a refrigerator. I was just a little kid sitting
out on the sidewalk, and I can still see this, just as I was
sitting out on that sidewalk right now. He took some kind
of strap and just wrapped it around that refrigerator, pulled
it over his back, and just toted it out of the house. He was a
strong man. He lived to be late in his 80s.
And you know, just a few days before he died, he couldn't even
pick up his hand. What about riches? What about
riches? 1 Timothy 6 verse 7 says this,
we brought nothing into this world. And you think about it,
did anybody in here Did anybody in here bring anything into this
world? We brought nothing into this world and it is certain,
that's a pretty strong word, it is certain that we're gonna
carry nothing out. How often, how often these things
we glory in end up being our undoing? I read about this years
ago that there's a, They trap monkeys, and they just take like
a container or even a stump with a little hole in it, and it's
just big enough for that monkey to fit his hand in there if it's
empty. And they put something down inside
of it that he has to have. When he grabs a hold of it, he's
stuck. And here's the crazy thing. He
won't let go. He will not let go. Isn't that
us? Isn't that us with the things
of this world? We won't turn loose. We won't
turn loose. That's our nature. Well, let's
read on here. Let's read on in our text here.
Back to Jeremiah 9, verse 24. I ask you this, what is this
vain person to do? What is this vain? We've got
to have something to glory in, right? What are we to glory in? We're told the things not to
glory in, but what are we glory in? Listen to this verse. But let him that gloryeth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me. that I am the
Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord." We're to glory in Him. We're to glory in the Lord Himself. Listen, we're completely dependent
upon Him for all things. for everything. And that He knoweth me. That
He knoweth me. We can glory in the fact that
we know the Lord. That's what that says. Paul, writing in the
Corinthians, he said, I determined not to know anything among you,
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, that's a great thing to
know, isn't it? To know the Lord, to know Him. In 1 John 5, 20,
we know. What do we know? We know that
the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that
we may know Him that is true. And we are in Him that is true. Even in His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the true God. Scripture
says this is eternal life, to know Him. Philippians 3, let
me just read this to you. Paul said, yea, doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. I count everything but loss.
For whom I've suffered the loss of all things. And he said, I
count them but done. Everything. He said, I count
it but done, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God, which
is by faith, that I may know him, that I may know him and
the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering
and be made conformable to his death, if by any means I might
obtain to the resurrection of the dead. I may know Him. Well, that's something to glory
in, isn't it? To know the Savior. Glory in this, that He understandeth
and He knoweth me. Now quickly, just listen to these
three things here. The first one is this. He said,
I am the Lord which executeth lovingkindness. Consider His lovingkindness.
in electing a people. Scripture says this, it pleased
the Lord to make you His people. That's His loving kindness. Consider
His loving kindness in the redemption of His people. He redeemed us
from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. His loving kindness in pardoning
our sin and forgiving our iniquity. What about His loving kindness
in giving His people eternal life? Scripture says, for God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, eternal
life in his son. And it's with loving kindness
that he draws us to himself. He literally draws us to himself. He's the Lord which exercises
loving kindness. And here's what's truly amazing
about this. To a people that are completely
undeserving, unworthy of his loving kindness. Second, he says
this, I'm the Lord which exercises judgment. That's a scary thing
to think about, judgment. But that judgment for the believer,
that judgment was exercised on the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin was
laid on Him. Sin was found on Him. Sin was
condemned on the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Isaiah 53. It's a familiar passage we love to read. Isaiah 53. Look beginning with
verse 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we're healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on, not us, but him. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so open
ye not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
judgment. Who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off
out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities." He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He bore our sins in his body
on the tree. Scripture clearly declares that
God made Him. God made the Lord Jesus Christ
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Sin, it must be punished. God must punish sin. And when
our sins were found on the Lord Jesus Christ, our sins, my sin. When it was found on the Lord
Jesus Christ, God slew his son in our room instead. He endured the wrath and judgment
of God for the sins of his people. Scripture says, this being freely
justified by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, a sin offering,
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remissions of sin that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare at this time his righteousness, that he might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth. And that
leads us to the third and final point. He's the Lord that exercises
righteousness. Righteousness. It's by Him. It's by the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's by the Lord Jesus Christ
that, listen, we're not just made slightly righteous. We're
not made just a little better because those things wouldn't
do. We're made the very righteousness of God in him. I believe we could glory in that,
can't we? Eternal glory in his son. He said this, I am the Lord which
exercise loving kindness, judgment, righteousness, for in these things
I delight, saith the Lord. Mercy, grace, Favor? To who? A miserable, sinful, worthless
people. Yet he's been pleased to save
us. To save his people, undeserving
people. He made his son an offering for
sin. He bruised him. And it's by his righteousness,
the very righteousness of God, God's law and God's wrath are
satisfied. Satisfied. Do you know him? Do I know him? Can I say that I know him? If
not, I pray he'd be pleased to make himself known to us. Let's read this passage just
one more time here. Turn back to Jeremiah 9. 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, glorieth in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which
exercised lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these things I delight, saith the Lord.