Glory in This!

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Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Jeremiah 9:23 Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; (24) But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.

  • Our text this morning is a poetic statement from the Lord which contrasts glorying in our own abilities with glorying in our knowledge of Him.

  • Interestingly, our text this morning was originally written to a people who had forgotten their God and were awaiting His judgment.

  • I believe it was a culture much like ours in many ways.

  • A culture who had lost their way through following after their own desires and pushing the Lord farther and farther to the back of their thinking.

  • Jeremiah 9:13-15 And the LORD said, "Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, (14) but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them," (15) therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

  • Don't get me wrong here, I am not calling for this judgment in our culture,

  • I realize that it was the nation of Judah that Jeremiah was prophesying to in our text.

  • Judah in the time of Jeremiah was a land of wickedness that had utterly turned its back on the Lord.

  • Jeremiah 1:14-16 Then the LORD said to me: "Out of the north calamity shall break forth On all the inhabitants of the land. (15) For behold, I am calling All the families of the kingdoms of the north," says the LORD; "They shall come and each one set his throne At the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, Against all its walls all around, And against all the cities of Judah. (16) I will utter My judgments Against them concerning all their wickedness, Because they have forsaken Me, Burned incense to other gods, And worshiped the works of their own hands.

     

  • And so these people who were once the “People of God” have forsaken Him and turned to their own works as well as to other gods for their satisfaction.

  • Jeremiah 2:13 "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water.

  • And this is the principle which must be dealt with here.;

  • As Judah was around 600 BC so is our culture and even much of the Church in 2009 AD.

  • Through a long process of decline Israel had gotten so far from their God that nothing seemed to penetrate their hard hearts or heads.

  • They had denied God as their source of life and turned to themselves.

  • God uses the image of a cistern, stagnant water at best, but theirs doesn't even hold water.

  • Jesus will use this metaphor of Himself in John 7:37 Those who are thirsty...

  • We now live in a similar time.

  • A culture that was once almost wholly Christian and now walks according to the dictates of its own heart and worships the work of its own hands.

  • In Jeremiah's time this referred to statues that were idols and represented false deities.

  • In ours I would equate it to self-sufficiency.

  • The idols were worshiped for what they could allegedly offer, fertility, wealth, military protection...

  • In other words, sufficiency without the One True God.

  • So I believe it really equals out pretty well.

  • And so now God's people who had once trusted in Him for all of their needs have ceased to trust in Him any longer.

  • They still give Him lip service, but that is really all it is.

  • They have prophets, but they prophesy falsely saying what the people want to hear.

  • Jeremiah, the true prophet is treated with contempt.

  • Jeremiah 5:30 "An astonishing and horrible thing Has been committed in the land: (31) The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?

  • Living with false hopes that are not grounded in the Word of God will get them nowhere!

  • “But what will you do in the end?”

  • Listening to lies, believing the imaginations of men instead of the inspired Word of God!

  • And so these folks are very religious!

  • They just seem to enjoy their religion better without God!

  • Jeremiah 6:10-14 To whom shall I speak and give warning, That they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, And they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the LORD is a reproach to them; They have no delight in it. (11) Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD. I am weary of holding it in. "I will pour it out on the children outside, And on the assembly of young men together; For even the husband shall be taken with the wife, The aged with him who is full of days. (12) And their houses shall be turned over to others, Fields and wives together; For I will stretch out My hand Against the inhabitants of the land," says the LORD. (13) "Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is given to covetousness; And from the prophet even to the priest, Everyone deals falsely. (14) They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, Saying, 'Peace, peace!' When there is no peace.

  • And so the religion that they do have is a vain religion.

  • A religion without the Word of God at its center.

  • A religion without delight in the Lord.

  • A religion without morality.

  • A religion of lies!

  • A religion with no power to save.

Here in the midst of this calamity, a godless people who have lost their way and are about to be judged for it, God gives them their only real hope one more time!

Jeremiah 9:23 Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; (24) But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.

  • Apparently there were still those who thought that they could find their way out without God's help.

  • Those who gloried in their own wisdom, might and wealth.

  • But Babylon was on their doorstep and they were trying to decide which side to take,

  • Shall we ally ourselves with Egypt, a superpower of their day?

  • With Assyria who had carried off the Northern Kingdom 100 years earlier?

  • Or with the upstart Babylonians who are challenging the other powers of the age?

  • God says, “Just listen to my prophet Jeremiah and know that though I am sending judgment through Babylon, with them is the safest place for you.

  • Receive My correction and live.

  • Try to get out of it and you are in even more trouble!!

  • Jeremiah 27:8-11 And it shall be, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish,' says the LORD, 'with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. (9) Therefore do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, "You shall not serve the king of Babylon." (10) For they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land; and I will drive you out, and you will perish. (11) But the nations that bring their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let them remain in their own land,' says the LORD, 'and they shall till it and dwell in it.' " ' "

  • And so what will the people do?

  • Judah continued to reject God;s Word and found themselves consumed by Babylon until what was left of them was released 70 years later.

  • Most of them perished or were scattered.

    Lets go back to our text and see how it applies to us;

    Jeremiah 9:23 Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;

  • 1 Corinthians 4:7 For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

  • These Corinthians were Christians who were a little over inflated themselves.

  • They thought that somehow they had a right to glory in the gifts of God that they had without the glory going to God.

  • Oh, I would never do that!

  • It is not just spiritual gifts that we have from God, but our very lives!

  • “What do you have that you did not receive?”

  • I caused myself to be born and not only that but to be born to a family in the US.

  • I cause myself to have the IQ I have.

  • Yeah Right!

  • Acts 17:24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. (25) Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. (26) And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, (27) so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; (28) for in Him we live and move and have our being...

  • Yet men seem to think that this is reality,

  • I am a self-made man!

  • I pulled myself by my own bootstraps.

  • Both logically impossible statements that are made all the time.

  • Men are so hard hearted even as Judah was in the days of Jeremiah!

     

  • We can go all the way back to Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy and see that this is so!

  • Deuteronomy 8:11 "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, (12) lest--when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; (13) and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; (14) when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; (15) who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; (16) who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end-- (17) then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.' (18) "And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day. (19) Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. (20) As the nations which the LORD destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the LORD your God.

  • Yet God says, 1 Corinthians 3:18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. (19) For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "HE CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR OWN CRAFTINESS"; (20) and again, "THE LORD KNOWS THE THOUGHTS OF THE WISE, THAT THEY ARE FUTILE." (21) Therefore let no one boast in men.

  • And so the might of the mighty man, the wisdom of the wise and the wealth of the wealthy comes from God and is nothing compared to God.

  • 1 Corinthians 1:19 For it is written: "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND BRING TO NOTHING THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT." (20) Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (21) For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

  • And it is our so-called wisdom that makes us believe in our own ability and glory in it.

  • God says that He will bring it to nothing and it is through the foolishness of a message preached that He will accomplish His purpose.

    Jeremiah 9:24 But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the LORD.

  • Judah will not deliver itself by wisdom, might or wealth.

  • It can only find help in the wisdom of the Lord.

  • In Knowing and Understanding Him!

  • Even as God's people we still have a nature that forgets this and needs to be reminded again and again.

  • We are to Glory

  • In understanding God,

  • In knowing God

  • That He is Jehovah (LORD)

  • That He exercises;

  • lovingkindness

  • judgment

  • righteousness

  • and He delights in them.

  • In understanding God,

  • As God's people we need to understand Him.

  • Theoretical knowledge, knowing about Him

  • So many people try to figure the world out without Him and then maybe add Him to their understanding of it.

  • This is impossible!

  • We must start with God and see the creation through His eyes first or we will never see it aright.

  • He created everything perfect.

  • It was marred by man's sin and subjected to a curse.

  • Man was separated from God spiritually but still remains His creation and is subject to His laws.

  • In knowing God

  • Though the world is this way, we can still know Him

  • We can have a personal knowledge of Him,

  • not just knowing about Him but knowing Him!

  • But our nature militates against the accurate knowledge of Him

  • We need to know Him to understand Him!

  • We need to understand Him to know Him!

  • Without Him coming to our aid we are in trouble and who we think we are and what we think we can do is irrelevant!

  • He is LORD,

  • Jehovah is His covenant name.

  • It is a sign of His faithfulness!

  • He exercises;

  • lovingkindness

  • The first attribute that God speaks of here is His mercy!

  • Lovingkindness; God's kindness to those who are not worthy of it.

  • As Judah was not worthy, yet God still showed them the right way.

  • judgment

  • But He is also a God of judgment.

  • He will by no means clear the guilty as He says in the 10 Commandments.

  • As He is displaying here in Jeremiah as He brings judgment on Judah who has continually betrayed Him.

  • righteousness

  • He is also a God of Righteousness.

  • Always doing what is right and fair.

  • and He delights in these things.

And so, how is it that God can be at once merciful and just?

  • How can He be righteous in rendering a verdict of guilty and still show lovingkindness?

  • Lamentations 3:21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. (22) Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. (23) They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

  • This is God's covenant faithfulness.

  • He has promised Abraham that his seed would bless the world.

  • He will not allow His purpose to fail!

  • Here He is bringing the way of blessing into the world through Abraham's seed – Jesus.

  • 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

  • Here He is allowing that promise to be fulfilled by those who are blessed with Believing Abraham.

  • He has given us more than an ample opportunity to repent!

  • He could have judged us and found us guilty long ago, but knowing that some of us would repent He has shown mercy in waiting.

  • That may be you today!

  • More profoundly, He has combined His justice and His mercy in Jesus Christ, His only Son.

  • GOSPEL!

  • Even in the Old Testament times God forgave sin through a sacrifice that foreshadowed this.

  • A sacrifice that was a continual reminder of sin that held them in bondage as they looked for God's Messiah, Abraham's descendant.

And so the questions come;

  • Do you understand the Lord today?

  • Do you know the Lord today?

  • Is the Lord that you know the one that describes Himself to Jeremiah and to Judah?

  • Is He a covenantally faithful God of mercy, judgment and righteousness?

  • If you know Him, are you proclaiming Him to the world around you who has lost their way?

  • I don't care whether they go to church or not.

  • Remember, Judah was religious.

  • Do they understand and know the Lord?

  • Not are they religious!?

  •  

 

80-90% of people in our culture still claim the name Christian and about half of those claim the name Born Again.

  • Yet they still go to their graves believing that they are such though they have never really sought to serve Him with their lives.

  1. “My Way,” Frank Sinatra
    2. “Wonderful World,” Louis Armstrong
    3. “Time To Say Goodbye,” Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman
    4. “Unforgettable,” Nat King Cole
    5. “The Wind Beneath My Wings,” Bette Midler
    6. “Amazing Grace,” various artists
    7. “We’ll Meet Again,” Vera Lynn
    8. “Over the Rainbow,” Judy Garland
    9. “Abide With Me,” Harry Secombe
    10. “Danny Boy,” various artists

    AmericanSongwriter.com

 

We live in a generation where people want a God who they can design themselves, according to the dictates of their own desires.

  • They find prophets that will tickle their ears and believe damnable heresies.

  • They are destined for the judgment of God!

We need to preach this message to the culture like Jeremiah did.

  • We have a coventally faithful God who is knowable;

  • He is merciful

  • He is also just in judgment

  • He is also righteous.

  • Do you understand Him?

  • Do you know Him?

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