Introduction and Review
You can turn in your Bibles back to Jeremiah chapter 9. We continue our look at the text in Jeremiah 9, specifically verses 23 and 24. We read the entirety of the passage this morning just to introduce some of what was going on there, as we'll only read verses 23 and 24 this evening. But in verse 11, we see the announcement of the certainty of judgment. given by the prophet, God is most certainly following through with his promise that if Israel broke his covenant, if they were disobedient, he would visit them with the curses of the covenant.
We see the ignorance of the nation in verse 12. They did not know the word of the Lord. They did not know what was spoken by his mouth. We see the reason for judgment explained in verse 13 and in verse 14.
And then what follows from verse 15 all the way down to verse 22 is an expansion upon the coming judgment, an announcement that God would feed the nation of Israel with wormwood, give them gall to drink. He asks them to call for the mourning women, for the wailing women to come and sing the lamentations of judgment, the lamentations of destruction. He closes by saying in verse 23, speak thus says the Lord. Even the carcasses of men shall fall as refuge on the open field, like cuttings after the harvester, and no one shall gather them.
And now we'll read our text, verse 23 and verse 24. 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, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord. Amen.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this text of Holy Scripture. We thank you for the clarity and what it discloses to us. We pray that you would help us again now by your spirit and for your glory to apprehend with great joy your revelation.
We pray that you would illuminate our minds by your spirit, that we might know the more the things revealed by you to us in your word. We do pray that you would help us by this exercise of worship to go into this upcoming week conducting ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. We do pray that all that we do now would be done unto the praise of your glorious grace. And once again, we pray in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Well, if you were here this morning, and even if you weren't here, we'll rehearse what we covered this morning. going through a threefold examination of Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24. And that threefold examination came by way of the following phrase, the vainglory, the virtue, and the verity. And we noted that that can be further elaborated upon by noting first that there is a prohibitive warning issued in verse 23.
The vain glory seen is that there were those who were wise, glorying in their wisdom, strong, glorying in their strength, and rich, glorying in their riches. And this prohibitive warning is given. And we noted among many things that the reason it is given is because these things will not help them in the day of calamity. The wisdom of the wise, or wisdom so-called, that which was gloried in by the wise, this will not help them in the day of trouble.
The strength of mighty men will not help them in the day of trouble, and the riches of the rich men will not help them. Why? Because all of these things are going to be taken away. We read the narrative in 2 Kings 24, Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian cronies, who had it put in their hearts by the sovereign God to come and bring recompense upon Israel for its apostate and disobedient condition.
They come and they take the wise men away. They take and they conquer the mighty men and they take them away. They take the rich men and their riches and they take those things away. So the vainglory is seen in the fact that these things will be taken away and ultimately that they really have no infinite worth in and of themselves, do they?
But rather and exclusively glorying and boasting is to be in the Lord alone. So we only looked at the vainglory this morning, which again is seen in the Excessive pride in these hollow and empty things. And now we move on to the virtue and the verity.
The Virtue: Glorying in God
So what is the virtue? Well, we find it in verse 24. If the bad thing. If the vainglorious thing is seen in glorying and boasting and wisdom, strength and riches, then what is the good thing?
What is the holy thing? What is the thing that is not hollow, but is full? What is the thing that is not empty, but is full? What is the thing that is not valueless, but full of value?
Well, it is given to us in this here in verse 24. But let him who glories glory in this. that He understands and knows me. This is the virtue. And when we say virtue, we're not saying something that finds its virtuousness in the person wherein it is represented, but rather God telling man what is the good thing, what it is that He is to do.
Remember, the prohibitive warning issued comes in the flavor of what not to do. Prescriptive counsel, which is verse 24a, is what to do very simply. And what are they to do? Well, negatively and again, they're not to glory in wisdom, might and riches, but rather, verse 24a, let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me.
Calvin says to know God is the chief part of perfect wisdom. You see, this verse 24a is a remedy to verse 23. Calvin is exactly right to know God is the chief part of perfect wisdom. You see, the wise glorying in their wisdom runs in the face of or rails against glorying in God because it is the knowledge of God wherein there is perfect wisdom.
We want to look, though, at the virtue under three headings, the virtue here under three considerations.
Glorying Is Exclusively God's Due
True and proper glorying is exclusively God's due. True and proper glorying is exclusively God's due. It is not due unto anyone else or anything else, but rather to God alone. Why would we say that?
Well, because of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. You can turn with me to the book of First Chronicles in chapter 29 for a moment.
Notice what we find there. We find that from God comes all things. To whom should we go or in whom should we glory? Well, we should glory in the one who has all things in his sovereign power and who dispenses all things according to the good pleasure of his will.
Notice this comes from the lips of David as he's looking forward to the kingship of his son, Solomon, and as he's looking forward to the building of the temple that would not take place under his kingship, but under his son's. First Chronicles 29, verse 10. Therefore, David blessed the Lord before all the assembly, and David said, Blessed are you, Lord God of Israel, our father forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and in earth is yours.
Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you and you reign over all. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.
Hopefully for all of you who are here this morning, your minds are working here and you see how this rubs against the disposition of these that are the recipients of Jeremiah's warning. It is God who has in his hands, in his greatness, power and glory, victory and majesty. All that is in heaven and earth is his. And it is in his good pleasure, in his own timing, and according to his own prerogative, That riches in honor come out to those who dwell upon the earth.
You reign over all, David declares. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. So you see the folly in one who is great, one who is strong, boasting in their greatness and in their strength.
Because it is God who is to have his due. He is to be given all glory and all honor because it is in his hand to make great. to give strength, to give riches, to give wisdom. True and proper glorying is exclusively God's due. If you were, or if we were, to do a survey of the doxologies, those formal collections of praise given by authors to God through the scriptures, if we were to analyze these, what we would find is that time and again, and you can turn to 1 Timothy, time and again we see that this is brought forth, that true and proper glorying is exclusively God's due.
Notice in 1 Timothy, one of many, only one of many doxologies given to God in the scriptures, we see something that is striking. 1 Timothy 1 and verse 17. Notice what we find there. Now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, To God, who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
You see, if we were to just fast forward through this doxology, we might throw out a customary and a complimentary, yeah, that's great. Our God is great. But we need to dive into the truths that are here, because first off, we're confronted with the fact that He is a King eternal. You see, Nebuchadnezzar would boast, remember, in Daniel, in chapter 4, That am I not Nebuchadnezzar, the great one of Babylon who has heaped to himself by his own power and strength all of these riches, this kingdom, the mighty palaces, all of these things?
I'm paraphrasing, of course. But you see, his mindset and his disposition was that I did all of this by my cunning military might, by my power, and by my strength. But you see, he was brought low, wasn't he, by our God. Seven times he was put down to eat the grass of the earth, to have his nose in the dust, to be laid low, that he might be brought out of that lowliness to render true glory, not to himself again, but to the living and true God, because it is he who rules in the heavens, in the earth, in the sea, and in all deep places.
He is not, Nebuchadnezzar is not an eternal king. There is only one. The Lord God Almighty, He is King, eternal. He is immortal.
But wait, you say, men and angels are immortal, aren't they? Well, you see, Timothy would later in the doxology in 1 Timothy 6 write, who alone has immortality dwelling in unapproachable light? God truly and really is the only one who has immortality in and of himself originally. Essentially and not by derivation like men and angels.
He is the one who alone has immortality. He is invisible. Unlike unlike men. He is invisible.
He cannot be seen. He is nowhere to be found, and yet He is everywhere, filling the heavens and the earth. He cannot be confined locally in a place like men. He cannot be circumscribed by time and space.
He cannot, and He is not, definitively present anywhere, like the angels. But rather, He is repletively, unconfined. filling the heavens and the earth. His essence is immediately present to every part in the created order. The Lord our God is invisible to God who alone is wise.
You'd say, well, there's some who have wisdom. I mean, yeah, I got a little bit of wisdom, don't I? I know some stuff. I'm not talking about me.
I'm saying, you know, people, we can say that. We can say, yeah, you know, I've got some learnings. I know some things. I've read a few books.
But you see, it is only God who, in and of Himself, not has wisdom, but is wisdom. It's not a property that He has, a quality that He has, but rather He is identical with His wisdom. If there is God, then He is also wisdom. And unlike men and unlike angels, He doesn't have wisdom by deriving it from another.
He doesn't discursively learn, but rather He knows by virtue of being God. He is alone wise. And it is right then that Paul, I think I said Timothy writes later. I meant Paul writes to Timothy later.
It is right that Paul then closes it here by saying, to God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. You see, because true and proper glorying is exclusively God's do. And the doxologies are a witness to this fact.
If we go to the book of Revelation and let's do that, then what do we find there? Well, we find that glorying, boasting, is to be unto God, not unto men, not unto things, but rather for God's sake alone. Notice in Revelation 4, we see God praised for the fact of His creation. Why is God to receive exclusive glory?
Well, it is because He has created all things. Notice Revelation 9, whenever the living, excuse me, 4.9, Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying, you are worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. You notice what the rich do, if we can Use that language. These who have crowns, they don't grip them with white knuckle grips saying, these are ours and I'm going to glory in my crowns, but rather they cast them before the throne, rendering them, if you will, as gifts, as offerings before the one who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all his perfection saying, you are worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.
For you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. The madness and the folly, again, of the nation of Israel having been chosen by God. Remember we read in Deuteronomy 7, God saying, I did not choose you because you were the greatest among the nations of the world, but rather I set my love upon you and I chose you. He redeems them from out of bondage in Egypt.
He puts them into, he places them in the promised land after the wilderness wanderings. Time and again, they rebel against him. And yet he redeems them. He brings them from out of the madness and folly of following after other gods.
He brings them from out of bondage to the pagan nations around them. But again, they fall away. They fall back. And time and again, what do they do?
Well, they do not give glory to the Lord God. They do not give to God glory and honor and power. They do not ascribe to him glory and honor and power, but rather what do they do? They throw their babies into the arms of a statue who has a fire burning at his feet.
They follow after the bales. They follow after the pagan deities. After the God of so much glory condescends to pour out his mercy and his grace and his love upon them. True and proper glorying is exclusively God's due, and of course we have Not only God here praised for creation, but Christ, the God-man, praised for redemption.
Revelation 5, 9. You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. And then, reminder of what we read this morning, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power. and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and blessing. You see the madness of people boasting in wisdom, and strength, and riches in their own.
They are to render unto the Lamb, unto God, unto the Son of God in this particular text. He is the one who is to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. So the virtue is seen in We read in Jeremiah 9, 24, the remedy to the vain glory of apostate Israel. When we read, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me.
We are to get that true and proper glorying is exclusively God's due. And secondly, under the virtue,
The General Necessity of Knowing God
the general necessity of the knowledge of God. the general necessity of the knowledge of God, we ought to get very clearly from this text that we are to understand and know God. It is the stuff of vainglorious pursuits to endeavor after every other understanding and knowledge save for that which God sets before the nation of Israel here and before our eyes as that which is to be exclusive, the understanding and the knowledge of Him. It is, again, a vainglorious pursuit to seek after all other things to the exclusion and to the sacrifice of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The general necessity of the knowledge of God.
Listen to what Spurgeon says at the point of knowing God, the knowledge of God. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect. Nothing so magnify the whole soul of man. As a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the deity.
The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. You see, young and old here tonight, why do you bother yourself with so many vainglorious pursuits and not give one second, one minute to the living and true God? You occupy your day with so many things And yet you never occupy your day with a contemplation of the glorious Trinity, contemplation of the Son of God, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, and His perfections, just like Father and Spirit, coming in the fullness of the times, taking to Himself man's nature, with all the common properties and infirmities thereof, yet without sin, marching to the cross to die for sinners, to rise again, What a glorious God and what a glorious Christ. And yet, as Spurgeon says, we heap to ourselves poisonous weeds and we let the rose of Sharon wither.
The general necessity, the knowledge of God. Calvin says to highlight the reality that you see the The pursuit of the understanding and knowledge of God is not found in cold speculation and dry theology. Theology that is dry, let it never be the case, because biblical theology is not dry, it is glorious. It's the stuff that causes the heart to leap and to sink.
We ought to know more of our God. Calvin, on this, writes, the knowledge of God does not rest in cold speculation, but carries with it the honoring of Him. Is not this the chief sin? of the Israelites here in the book of Jeremiah. Not only did they not have a knowledge of God, but in the rejection of the knowledge of God, they certainly weren't honoring him, were they?
Notice what we find in Jeremiah 2 and verse 8. You can find your way back there. You see, one of the chief issues at the heart of the matter, apostate Israel, is lack of the knowledge of God. Jeremiah 2 and verse 8, the priests did not say, Where is the Lord?
And those who handle the law did not know me. The rulers also transgressed against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that do not profit. Jeremiah 9, the very text that we're reading from, yet in a section that we did not read from, notice in Jeremiah 9 in verse 3, And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies.
They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says the Lord. And verse 6 of chapter 9, Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know Me, says the Lord.
You see, the knowledge of the Lord comes with the honoring of Him. If we are to honor God, if you want to honor God, and of course we hope and pray that you do, You are to understand and you are to know him. And in so doing, you bring honor to God. We are to know God.
We are not to confess Christian theism and then at the same time, abandon ourselves to a functional or an academic agnosticism. What do I mean by that? Well, we profess Christian theism. Yes, you know, there's a God, I believe, and this triune God that the church speaks of.
But I don't want to be bothered by a pursuit of knowledge. Isn't that the stuff for the ivory tower theologians? Or I just really don't have time. You see, that is really to confess Christian theism in one breath, but then in the next breath to confess an academic agnosticism, I really don't need to know.
If you say you confess God, if you say you confess Christ, then you are. to understand and know that God and his Christ. This is eternal life. Christ prayed to the father. That they may know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
You see that the sweetest science, the noblest science is the school which has as its focus the doctrine of the triune God and the Christ of saving and perfect redemption. What school do you go to? Do you go to the school of the earth, the school of the world, keeping to yourself everything else save for the triune God and His Christ and Him crucified? We are not to confess Christian theism, but then be marked by a functional and academic agnosticism, abandoning ourselves to mystery, forsaking growth in the knowledge of God and using incomprehensibility as a pious veil to hide behind. to ignore a knowledge and learning of the Triune God.
You see, this is very often, when we studied the doctrine of God a number of months ago in our morning Bible studies, we noted that Deuteronomy 29.29 isn't to be used as an escape hatch from theological learning. You know, those things, the secret things are for the Lord, but those things that are revealed are for us and his children. You know, oh, the secret things. We shouldn't pursue a knowledge of the incomprehensible God.
Can't we just rest in the mystery of this immense deity who is one in three and leave it at that? No, God calls us to understand and know him. Hopefully that's clear from this text, brothers and sisters, and hopefully you never use Deuteronomy 29, 29 to escape theological learning. Let him who glories, glory in this, that he understands and knows me.
Mental laziness needs to be jettisoned from our Christian activity. Proper wisdom in the knowledge of God is what we are to pursue. You see, in the knowledge, in the understanding and knowing of God that God calls his people to glory in, we have an answer to the wisdom, the strength and the riches that these people were glorying in. Notice if you turn with me to Psalm 111.
Psalm 111, and hopefully these things don't come as new things to your ears, but helpful reminders and guides as you go into this week, hopefully seeking to endeavor to know the Trinity. Psalm 111 and verse 10, the fear of the Lord is what? The beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments and praise his praise endures forever.
You see, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you don't fear the Lord tonight, you are not wise. You may be in your own eyes, but you are the biggest fools on the face of the earth. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
The one who owns the God of the scriptures, the only living and true God is the one who is truly marked by wisdom. Everlasting life is in the knowledge of God, isn't it? When we consider the general necessity of the knowledge of God, wisdom only comes from a knowledge of Him. And secondly, everlasting life in the knowledge of God.
Remember, again, those words of Christ in His high priestly prayer. This is eternal life. They might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. And a proper humility is in the knowledge of God.
If you're not still in the book of Psalms, You don't need to go there, but in Psalm 100 and verse 3, know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. You see, a true knowledge of God brings to the soul of the Christian a proper and a requisite humility because it is God who is the Lord and not men.
And thirdly, under the virtue, we have
Knowledge of God Amid Calamity
the specific necessity of the knowledge of God in the face of inevitable calamity. You see, and remember what Jeremiah 9, 23, 24, how it comes delivered to us is with those bookends of the certainty, the inevitability of judgment. Verse 11, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah desolate without an inhabitant.
Behold, verse 25, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised. Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. So judgment is coming.
You see, these thought that they had the Shekinah glory of God resting upon them like that Jewish proverbial phrase that the Shekinah glory dwells only on those who are wise and strong and rich. You see, God comes and rails against that mad proverb saying, let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me. So judgment is coming. It is inevitable.
And in the midst of judgment, what will be your hope? What will be your strength? What will be your refuge? Whether you're killed by Nebuchadnezzar and his cronies or whether you're taken away, whether you're left, whatever it may be, your refuge, your strength, your comfort of comforts is that you know and you understand the Lord and that you are glorying in him by his grace and for his glory.
You know, it's an application for all of us. For you, you know, you're young people out there, when trial hits, and it will, maybe you haven't, you know, you haven't bumped up against trial and affliction, whether you're not married or you're married, whatever your situation may be, when you are beset by trial, by affliction, however, whatever measure of severity it comes to you by the hand of God, you see, your hope and your anchor is not gonna be Your wisdom. It's not going to be your strength and how you think you're able to handle things and the strength of your body or the strength of your mind. You're not going to be able to buy your way out of a lot of afflictions.
You're just not. Where is your hope? Where is your anchor? It's to know and understand the Lord.
It's to find in Him your all in all. Trouble comes in your marriage. Are you going to rest upon the fairness of your wife or the handsomeness of your husband? Are you going to recollect, you know, things that are good in your marriage or are you going to see the Lord God, the living and true God, as the one who has given this one to you?
And are you going to see the institution that he has given to you, whether you're the husband or the wife, as something given from a gracious God who gives strength to his people and blesses his people with peace? You're a child in the home. Same thing. Whatever comes upon you.
Your glorying, your boast is not to be in the way that you think you're going to be able to handle yourselves, but rather you are to rest solely and alone upon the only true helper of the helpless, the living and true God. So the specific necessity of the knowledge of God in the face of inevitable calamity. Notice, if you can turn with me to Daniel 9 for a moment. Daniel chapter 9, because there we have something that speaks to this.
Daniel 9. Verse 13 specifically, notice what we see as it is written in the law of Moses. All this disaster has come upon us. Just pause for a moment.
What disaster is he speaking of? Well, what we're reading of prophesied in Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians are coming to sack, to destroy in accordance with the curses of the covenant. And so Daniel is writing, with these things having taken place. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth.
You see the specific necessity of the knowledge of God in the face of inevitable calamity. They were to understand that the only wisdom that avails is that which has God as the ground and content. You see, they were glorying in wisdom, but you see, it wasn't wisdom from on high that they were glorying in. It was their wisdom so-called, what we really call foolishness, the dictates they were following of their own minds.
And so what they are to do, what is to be the case, is that they were to understand the only wisdom that avails is that which has God as the ground and content. You see, the scriptures come to us and it is God who is the ground, the foundation, the giver of it. And he is the content of it, isn't he? The triune God, his Christ in the glory of salvation by amazing and victorious grace.
They were to understand that the only abiding strength comes from the God who is to be understood and known. You know what's prayed for in the book of Ephesians is this very thing. In Ephesians chapter 3, the Apostle Paul, and I would wager to guess that the stuff of Jeremiah 9 would be certainly a constituent part of the background of his prayer because notice what we find in Ephesians 3. In Ephesians 3, specifically in verse 14, and continuing, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
See the very language that we're dealing with in our examination of Jeremiah 9, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through the Spirit in the inner man. You see this, that they were to understand that the only abiding strength comes from God who is to be understood and known. He is the giver of strength. The One who shatters the cedars of Lebanon with the strength of His voice is the One who gives strength to His people, who blesses His people with peace.
They were to understand that the only eternal riches are found in the knowledge of God and of His Christ. What do we read with regards to Christ and His incarnation by the Apostle Paul? 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 9. The One, Jesus Christ, who was rich, became poor. for our sakes, so that by his poverty we might, what, become rich. You see, when we boast in earthly riches, when we, it's, it's, you can have a car and you can have a boat even, a little, you know, a, a quad to cruise around on, you can, you know, have a, a gold watch if you want, that's okay.
But you see, when riches consume you, when it's all about expensive things, when it's all about getting the bling, when it's all about getting toys and getting things, and you exclude the knowledge of your God? You don't give one second, one minute to the Lord God, one hour on any day? He is jettisoned from your contemplations and all that occupies your thoughts is stuff. You see, these things will perish with you.
You'll be cast into the lake of fire reserved for the devil and his angels. Your treasures won't go with you. You won't be able to coddle and to pet your You're gold and you won't be able to drive your car in hell. You won't be able to take your mad stacks down into the pit with you.
But rather emptiness. There is fullness, though, with Christ. Because he who was rich became poor for our sakes, that by virtue of his poverty we might become rich. Ephesians 1, if you're still in there, if you did turn there with me, notice what we have in Ephesians 1 in verse 7.
We have the language of riches in him. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. See, it's the riches of God's grace that we are to seek after with diligence and with fervor. Not the riches of this world, but the riches of the Lord, our God, and of his Christ.
They were to be resigned to the reality of his sovereign majesty and providence. Ultimately, when we look at Jeremiah 9, we see that God is calling them to glory in this, that they understand and know him. They are to be resigned to the reality of his sovereign majesty and providence. You see, because he put it into the heart. of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to sack Jerusalem in accordance with the covenant curses.
They're to understand, oh yeah, this our God promised would happen. Perhaps there might have been a handful. I don't know. It doesn't read that way.
There's always a remnant that God protects, that God carries on. Perhaps Jeremiah in his proclamation had one or two The spiritual children, as we talked about this morning in the Bible study hour, those who heard the prophecies, those who heard the proclamation of this one, the Lord, our righteousness, who would come and save us from our sins, those who heard the good word of the Lord, they came to people in the marketplace and said, don't you remember the Lord God promised our fathers that if we were disobedient, he would take our things from us. Those things that he gave us in his condescending grace and mercy, he would take them away. if we followed after other gods, if we disobeyed him and went to whoring after the deities of rock and stone and wood. They would have known that God, they would have known or been resigned to the reality of his sovereign majesty and providence, that these things are coming in accordance with his promise.
But wait, there is yet another promise. Jeremiah opens up to them. Death may come. It's going to come.
In fact, it is on its way. And it won't be stopped by the doors, and it won't be stopped by shut windows, but it'll creep through the windows, remember? So whether death comes, whether they're stolen away and taken to another nation, whatever happens to God's people who glory in the understanding and the knowledge of Him, nevertheless, they are safe because they have been preached to Christ, and they have been preached salvation. So whatever comes upon them, they are safely in the hand of the triune God.
Calvin on Stripping Vainglory
Lastly, then, as we look to close, well, in fact, before we move on, just a brief quote by Calvin on this that hopefully sums all of this up with regards to their knowledge of the sovereign plan and providence of God, bringing them low by rejecting false and vainglorious boasting and holding up before them proper glory. But as they arrogate, speaking of the unbelieving Jews, but as they arrogate to themselves more than what is right, and even inebriate themselves with delusions, he strips them naked, that after having known that all they think they have, either from nature or from themselves or from other creatures, is a mere phantom, that they may seek true glory. Maybe you're out there today and you're not a Christian. You know that you're not.
And you're here tonight nevertheless. Are you inebriated with delusions that there is no God? Or that if there is, he really isn't as is preached here in this church and as, you know, the Bible opens up. I believe in a God who will just wink at sin and look the other way.
He'll let me heap up to myself riches to follow after the dictates of my own heart. And in the end, He'll let me through because I'm a pretty good guy. We need to understand, and you need to perhaps submit to this reality that you would be made low, that you may seek true glory. Know that there is a God, that He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures as one that is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His holiness and justice, who cannot look upon sin favorably, You have sinned against this glorious God, and yet there is a way of salvation, and He has afforded it perfectly in the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Verity: Attendant Truths
Lastly, we have the verity. The verity. What does this mean? Well, remember, if you can find your way back to Jeremiah 9, we broke it down.
There is a prohibitive warning issued, verse 23, let not those warnings that are given Second, there is prescriptive counsel given, verse 24a, what they are to do. Let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me. And then lastly, there are attendant truths expressed. In so doing, in understanding and knowing me, what are the specific contemplations, the specific considerations to fill our minds with?
Well, this comes as the verity spoken, and it is threefold. Notice verse 24, but let him who glories glory in this that he understands and knows me for I am the Lord Exercising loving-kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth These three verities these truths the first of which is the identification of the only true God in
The Identification of the Only True God
None in understanding and knowing God they are to know that he alone is the Lord He says that I am the Lord. I am. God is the only living and true God. He is one in such a way that there can be no other.
You have been following after other gods. Understanding and knowing me isn't adding me to your pantheon of deities. It's not adding me as either the preferred or the superior deity among a complex of other gods. I'm the only living and true God.
This is the declaration of embryonic Israel, if you will, in Deuteronomy 6. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. As we move in redemptive history and in prophetic history, this is the repeated assertion of the prophet Isaiah. The prophet goes about his prophecies to an apostate in a disobedient nation.
He brings this to bear. Time and time again in Isaiah 44 and verse 8, Do not fear, nor be afraid. Have I not told you that time and declared it? You are my witnesses.
Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is no other rock. I know not one. In Isaiah 45, we have verse upon verse that speaks to this.
Verse 5, I am the Lord. There is no other. There is no God besides me. I will gird you, though you have not known me.
They that may know from that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides me. I am the Lord and there is no other. For thus says the Lord, verse 18, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is no other.
Why does he need to repeat this time and time again? Well, because time and time again. His chosen nation went a-whoring after other gods who are no gods at all. And He comes back to this reality that He is the only God.
He is alone to be feared, alone to be gloried in, alone to be worshipped. You see why the Lord God always brings, why the authors of Holy Scripture always bring this to bear? Who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, etc., because these mad fools were following after deities who were fashioned by the hands of men. Gods and deities whittled out of stone and rock and wood, out of the things that God himself has created.
So you should see an amazing truth when God by the prophet says, they have ears. but they cannot hear. They have eyes, but they cannot see. They have arms, hands, but they do not touch and handle. You see, our living and true God does not properly have eyes, and yet he sees all things.
These idols have eyes whittled by men, and yet they see nothing in their ignorance, being no gods at all. God doesn't properly have ears. And yet, does he not know all things? Does he not hear all things?
God properly has no arms. And yet, what does he do with an outstretched arm? He redeems Israel from out of bondage. The Lord, our God, is the only living and true God.
The Recognition of Mercy
We see here in Jeremiah 9, the recognition of mercy. First, it's the identification of the only true God. And secondly, it's the recognition of mercy. I am the Lord exercising loving kindness.
What sort of loving kindness would they ever have gotten from deities fashioned from wood and stone? I think we know the answer to that. It's no loving kindness at all. And yet they follow after them.
Yet they sacrifice their children to them. God is the Lord exercising loving kindness. That was what we rehearsed in Psalm 107. You remember the words there.
What are the words of God's loving kindness that David uses? Well, it's the fact that God's mercy is not a mercy that expires, but rather, O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. The Lord our God, the creator of heaven and earth, again, the one who splinters the cedars of Lebanon, is the one who visits his people with mercy, who brings it through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Lastly,
The Acknowledgement of God's Perfect Government
under the verity of the acknowledgement of his perfect government, what is one of the attendant truths that God brings to bear when he calls his people to understand and know him? Well, the last one is his perfect government. Notice, I am the Lord exercising, loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth. As Calvin notes, when these two things are put together and they often are, it denotes, if you will, a double edged sword of divine government.
You have justice or righteousness, which is the positive upholding of the law protection given, if you will, to the innocent. And we have judgment, the negative side of that two edged sword, recompense, wholesome severity visited upon those who would violate his laws and break his statutes. I am the Lord, he says, exercising loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. He protects his own, he judges his enemies.
Application: God Is True to His Promises
Notice, finally, before we have a closing observation and close in prayer, but notice something of this in Numbers 14. We talk about a contemplation of God's people and understanding and knowing him. that it is to be reflection upon his perfect government. Notice in Numbers 14 and specifically verse 18, the Lord is long suffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. But he by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.
Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of your mercy, just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now. There's something that we are to reflect upon in closing, and a knowledge and an understanding, the knowledge of God and the understanding of God. Remember what we touched upon this morning, the certainty of God's promises. Oh, it's always an exercise of the Christian.
It's always an exercise within Any body or assembly that flies the banner of Christianity to reflect upon the positive promises of God, isn't it? Oh, let's spend time upon His mercy, upon the certainty of those positive promises. You see, if you're here and you're outside of Christ today, or even if you're inside of Christ, know this, that God is sure to those negative promises as well. He will most certainly judge the wicked.
His unchanging nature, His immutability, His impassibility is seen in the fact that He doesn't change when He makes a promise. Whether it is for the good, the salvific good of those who find mercy and grace, or whether it is judgment, holiness visited, the wholesome severity of God in bringing judgment upon those who would reject such a God and reject such a Christ. We need to understand and know God, and that is as well a boon to the soul. You see, both promises are boons to the soul of the believer.
The good promises warm our hearts with the mercy and the grace of God extended to us through Christ Jesus, the Lord, and to the Christian as well. Those negative promises, what do they do? They ought to firm us up in our godly and reverential fear of this God. who is sure to his promises. Those people that cry out in the book of Revelation, how long, O Lord, holy and true, until you visit justice upon those who shed the blood of the saints in the earth?
God was sure to his promise. He came within a number of years and brought recompense to that apostate nation who put to death the Lord of glory and spilled the blood of the saints and the prophets. You see, if you're here this evening and you're You're outside of Christ in unbelief. You mock the positive promise.
But you see, hopefully now as the preacher preaches and as we pray in a few minutes, hopefully you're horrified. You're marked by terror for the second and negative promise. God will judge the wicked. Are you glorying in your wisdom to the exclusion?
God, your marked by glorying in the dictates of your own conscience, your own minds, your wisdom is your own wisdom, the world's wisdom, somebody else's wisdom, but far be it from you to latch on to the only true wisdom, which is wisdom from on high, your glorying in your own strength. Oh, I'll conquer this world by my own vigor and my own strength. You know how quickly that strength can go away? An injury, affliction, disease, death, You glorying in that to the exclusion, to the sacrifice of the living and true God and the knowledge of him?
Are you glorying in riches? Is your only desire to have things, to be rich, to heap to yourself toys and trinkets and trophies, all that will fade away? They're perishable. Gold and silver perishes.
There is only one treasure. That is the Christ who spilled his precious blood, the sins of his people. The knowledge of the living and true God. So might the reality that God is true to his promises that cut to your heart with terror.
Because all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. If you were to die today, if you were to die tomorrow, a month, a year from now, you have not closed with Christ. Christ, you have not by grace believed in him. Horror of horrors.
God is righteous and true. cast you into the lake of fire reserved for the devil and his angels. But you see, the book of Jeremiah doesn't, doesn't really, it doesn't stop at chapter 9. It continues. And what do we find?
The prophecies of Jesus Christ, the Lord, our righteousness, the one who came to be the savior of men, the one who saves those sinners who reside, who rest under the judgment and condemnation of God. By God's grace, those who believe in him, are no longer marked by condemnation and judgment, but rather they have peace which surpasses all understanding. If you're here tonight and you're feeling the terror of a righteous and a holy God, close with Christ. No longer dangle and stay upon the point of unbelief, dangling over the precipice, over the pit of hell.
Rather, close with Christ and know that in Him is true wisdom. In Him you find true strength. In Him you have riches upon riches and you need nothing else. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we rejoice in the Savior. We rejoice in the knowledge and in the understanding of you. We thank you that you have called us from out of darkness to light, to know you, to understand you, to rejoice in your loving kindness, to sing the praises of your righteous and perfect government. We pray that you would help us to each and every day glory and a knowledge of you.
We pray that you would, by grace and for your glory, come upon the wings of grace and save many now, young or old, who are outside of Christ in unbelief, that you would cause them to know you, to know their own sinfulness, and to fly to the Savior, in whom is forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. We do pray that you'd go with us now into this upcoming week, that you would help us, that you would strengthen us, that you would cause us to glory in you alone. We pray that you would help us to live in a manner worthy of your gospel. And we do pray in Christ's precious name.
Amen.