would turn with me in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23 and 24. We heard from this passage this morning in our scripture reading, our Old Testament scripture reading. We'll be going over it tonight together. Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23 and 24. Thus says the Lord, 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 riches. But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. Let's go to the Lord one more time in prayer together. Father, we do thank you so much for such a momentous text. And we as a body praise you and worship you for disclosing yourself, opening yourself up to us, and showing us who you are through truth. We do pray that we would be changed by the truth tonight, cause us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ as a result of your preached word. And we pray that it would go forth clearly that your word would have its effect, that lost sinners, those that are not trusting in Christ, would trust in Him, and that Christians would be edified. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I wonder what you think is behind God's commands, or rather what God's heart is behind commands like do not and let not. You notice in our text tonight, 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 riches. What's behind or what's God's heart in instructing us to let not or do not? Is this kind of a schoolmaster's overseeing, trying to kill the joy of his people? Friends, I would suggest tonight that God's let-nots and do-nots throughout the scripture, but particularly in this passage of scripture, is God's invitation to us to exchange the rags of self-confident worldly boasting for the riches of intimate knowledge of Him through Jesus Christ. I'll repeat that one more time. God would have us in the let-nots and the do-nots, but particularly in this verse, in these verses, to exchange the rags of self-confident worldly boasting for the riches of intimate knowledge of Him through Jesus Christ. Friends, two goals here, maybe one goal with two audiences in mind, two kinds of people here in mind. For the non-Christian here, I don't know many of you very well. Some of you I know well. I don't know your hearts. Some of you may have slipped into church membership. Some of you are not church members. You've never come face to face or in direct contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. So my hope through this scripture is that you yourself would abandon self-confident, self-assured, self-worshipping, self-exalting idolatry for trust and knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. And Christian, my hope for you is we encounter regularly this pull for self-exaltation, self-glory in the things that Jeremiah 9 is talking about, wisdom, might, riches. My prayer is that through tonight's talk, through tonight's devotional, you would shed those things aside for greater knowledge of God through his word. So we look at the text just immediately and I see it as divided in two kinds of points. We have verse 23 and verse 24. Verse 23, a prohibition from God, let not. And verse 24, an invitation from God to boast. Verse 23, a prohibition from boasting. And verse 24, an invitation from God to boast. To boast in Him, namely. So we begin with a prohibition, verse 23. God begins, again, by telling the wise man, boasting in his wisdom, the mighty man boasting in his might, and the rich man boasting in his wisdom, do not, let not. And these two verses, if you read the rest of Jeremiah 9, seem kind of out of context. Some people think that these verses are an insertion from a later author that has nothing to do with the context. If you read the scripture within Jeremiah 9 and Jeremiah 8, you see that it's in the middle of a passage talking about God's judgment, God's fierce judgment, towards the people of Judah who have broken God's covenant, broken God's law. And judgment, fierce judgment, is on its way. God says things like, in verse 24, The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them. And it's in the midst of this context of judgment and incoming death and the righteousness of God being displayed in sinners that the verses 23 and 24 are placed. God's invitation and God's prohibition. Now God names three types of boasts to flee from. And these types of boasts aren't supposed to be a comprehensive kind of, this is the only thing that God kind of hates. But these are three kinds of boasts that summarize self-glory, self-exaltation, sinful self-reliance that's independent from God and submitting to God. We see the three boasts here. It's wise men boasting in wisdom, mighty men boasting in might, rich men boasting in riches. I'm sure if you're aware of kind of culture and just life in general, you'd say that these three kinds of sins or examples of self-boasting are extremely relevant. You look at the latest podcast, for instance, be it something that's emphasizing kind of manhood or red pill kind of podcast or modern philosophers. There's this sea of desiring to glory in wisdom apart from God, apart from scripture, apart from tradition. We see through Instagram or even through neighborhood cookouts this boasting in riches and in personal might, a display of bodies or intellectual prowess or even riches. Yet, friends, these kinds of boastings are not unique to our age. It's not something that's just arisen today in this century. These things, as we can see in Jeremiah 23 to 24, are relevant throughout the ages. These kinds of boastings, man's bent towards having self-confident, self-exalting, self-glorifying boasts. has been present all throughout humanity since the fall. This is who you are, friend. This is who I am in the flesh apart from Christ. This is who we were before God had redeemed us. If you are not in Christ, this is who you are even now. So friends, why does God warn Judah in the midst of a passage of judgment about these three kinds of boastings. Why does he tell us in the midst of judgment to flee from boasting and self-confident and self-exaltation? Think of two reasons why. Number one, God in his nature, and you could do a study throughout the scriptures of this, God in his nature is opposed to the seemingly victorious boasting of sinners. God longs and loves to rescue the needy, the poor, the empty. He loves to reach out His hand of strength and save them from their neediness, save them from their need. But God is so devoted to His own exaltation. He's so devoted to His own glory. that he will have no competitors. He will have no one kind of competing with him for exaltation. And so you see throughout the scriptures with Lazarus and the rich man, with the tax collector and the Pharisee, this idea of those boasting of their rightness and their glory before God, being passed over by God or even cut off by God, while the needy are raised up by him. Number one, God opposes the boasting of sinners because he's intensely devoted to his own glory. But secondly, as we can see from the immediate context, judgment, God's making dead bodies and commanding women to wail and weep at the coming judgment. We see that these three things, money, wisdom, might, will not deliver you from judgment and death. Friends, God's judgment and the inescapable reality of death are inescapable. Money, status, might, wisdom cannot cause us to run from it. It will not deliver us. It will not keep us from God's judgment. It is inevitable. And so God, in tenderness, and that's what I think the tone of this text is, in tenderness, calls us to let not, do not trust in these things. There's a better way. These are the rags of self-satisfaction, self-trust. Abandon them for a better thing. And that's where number two comes in, our second point in verse 24, an invitation. And here we see a marked contrast. God calls those, maybe even here, who are drowning in self-glory and self-confidence and invites them to true riches in Him. God says if you're going to boast, boast in this. Boast in understanding and knowing Me. We'll read verse 24 again, but let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows Me. that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord. Friends, we're honored to experience and to read another instance of God opening himself up to us and showing us what he's like, namely what he delights in. So what we're about to read about God and his delights aren't things he begrudgingly does. It's not some things that he has to do and that someone above him forces him to do. But it's the very bent of his heart, what God delights in. And there's three things, according to the text, that God delights in doing. He delights in doing justice. He delights in working out righteousness in the earth. And he delights in exercising loving kindness. First, justice. God is the God of perfect justice. God delights in taking the oppressed, taking victims, taking the weak, what we were talking about before, and by way of judicial decree, rescuing them from the pit, and taking persecutors, taking the wicked, taking those oppressing those in need, and judging them. God delights in that. His heart is bent towards that. He enjoys doing that. And secondly, he delights in exercising righteousness in the earth. And this is a reference to God's desire to see moral purity, righteousness, rightness manifested in the earth. It's just an outflowing and outpouring of his moral purity and holiness himself. He wants to see it in the earth. And third, God's His heart is bent towards loving kindness, covenant love, mercy towards those in need. So friends, seeing a God who delights in these three things is good news for us. It's good news that God is someone who delights in justice and mercy, loving kindness, and moral purity on the earth. It's good news and it's bad news. Can you say with David in Psalm 143 verse 2, listen to what David says, and he includes two of the three things, three words, three attributes in this text, in his prayer and his crying out to God. Psalm 143 verse 2, he cries out to God, enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. You're seeing the problem here, why it's good news in a sense for God's character to care about the needy, to care about those who are weak, to care about those who are crushed, to want righteousness and justice manifested on the earth, and yet bad news because none of us are righteous. None of us are good. And if God were to be just in his judgment of those who dwell on the earth, We'd be in serious, serious trouble. For God to institute righteousness and justice on this earth would mean for him to rid the earth of us, to cast us into hell, to take us away from his presence and to rid of us completely. There's no one righteous. And so friends, God's character revealed here, if you're not in Christ, is a terror. It's not a joy. And yet, there is good news. So it's like good news, bad news, good news. The good news is that God himself, this God of righteousness, loving kindness, and justice, came down and took on flesh, lived the perfect life for sinners like you and me. And he took on our sin debt, the righteous judgment of God that we deserved. He took on himself, and God the Son bore the brunt of God the Father's justice for sinners like us. So friends, if you're here tonight and you've not personally trusted in Jesus Christ, you've not turned from your sins and believed on Christ, if you yourself are encumbered and just drowning in these kinds of self-exalting things in Jeremiah 9. For instance, we heard Chase's testimony today. He left certain sins. God opened his eyes to sin and he left it. If that's not you, the good news is God has sent his only son, for Him to bear our sins, bear the judgment of God, be buried for us, raised, ascend, and be at the right hand of God the Father for you. If you will turn from your sin and trust in Him, you'll be saved. So the application to you, if you're not a Christian, is to turn and believe in this God of loving kindness, steadfast love, and justice. But Christian, we ourselves are not exempt from this danger. Ask yourself this question as we think of the dangers of glorying, self-glory, self-exaltation, idolatry towards riches and might, all of these sorts of things that God condemns. Ask yourself this question. What cools your fire in your life? What cools your flame and fire? for seeking after the very things God calls us to boast in, in verse 24. What cools your fire from greater pursuit, greater knowledge, greater attainment of familiarity and intimacy with God? Friends, if you yourself are feeling this coolness and coldness towards pursuing the things of God, I think it's important to think of what would flame and fan the fire. And friends, there's nothing better I could think of and the Scriptures might tell us to do than, of course, read our Bibles and pray, seek God for greater fillings of the Holy Spirit and knowledge of God. But on top of this, to gather for corporate prayer with the people of God, to engage in prayer, calling out to God, to revive us as we pray today. to hear the Word of God preached, sung, prayed with the people of God, and to engage in deliberate fellowship with God's people. how much of your conversation with your brothers and sisters is consciously steering towards, nothing wrong with our lives, even small talk, but consciously steering towards knowing God more through fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. And talking about what you've read in the scriptures or experiences you've had in prayer or evangelism. Friends, if you're cooling and bending towards this kind of self-exaltation, self-confidence, take hold of the privileges of church membership and of church attendance. But perhaps in the midst of all this, the pull towards the things of the world and self-confidence and idolatry is still strong. Those things in verse 23, the wise man boasting in his wisdom, the mighty man boasting in his might, the rich man boasting in his riches, Friends, we have gospel resources for each one of these categories. Is the pull of boasting in riches, particularly, grabbing you and pulling you to itself? Well, the solution would be to look at one who has made you an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ. One whose inheritance for you is as incorruptible and unfading as his own being. When Puritan put it in a very lovely, kind of concise, sharp way, riches may leave us when we live, we must leave them when we die. That's what he said. But this heavenly inheritance that God has given us in Christ will only fade away if Jesus himself dies. The answer to that is Jesus will never die. These inheritances are ours forever, God himself inheriting the earth. inheriting and sitting and sharing Christ's throne with him. What's a puny bank statement or climbing the corporate ladder ambitiously? compared to eternal inheritances in Christ. And friends, these joys I've mentioned, these riches, the enjoyment of them begins now in intimate communion and fellowship with the living God. John 17 3 makes clear that this is eternal life, that they might know you, the only God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. You're given riches even today. You've given over to feasting on the abundance of God's house and drinking from the river of His pleasures even now. It's the pull of worldly wisdom grabbing you and making you think that it's overthrown the wisdom of scripture. Well, you have an anointing from God that you might know the scriptures. Divine truth, brothers and sisters, is finally open to you. Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 13, 11, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. Your shifting, changing wisdom, either influenced by the world or dominated by its thought, yields, gives way, and flies away for God-given, God-imparted knowledge. And last, a strength, might, pull you away. What better way to curb vain ideas of confidence in your own fading strength than for you to look to the one who shows himself strong, 2 Chronicles tells us, shows himself strong on the behalf of those whose hearts is fully given to him. Your strength is ever unreliable, ever declining, but he is ever girded with might. And his strong arm is not against, but for you. He is a strong fortress and a tower, and this immutable God can never be shaken or moved. He is fixed, immovable, and He is your strength. Friend, we ought to look to every pull towards self-confidence, boasting as utter lunacy compared to the great riches and treasures that God has given us to boast in, in knowing Him. Friends, knowing and understanding this God in Christ and pressing on to know Him more and more, this is worthy of true boasting. Let's pray. Lord, we do pray that we would hasten to know you more and more. Father, for those who do not know you, we pray that they would come to know you savingly, that they would trust in you, and that they would abandon self-confidence, self-exaltation, self-worship. for falling at the feet of Jesus. And Lord, we do pray for the Christians here that they would continue to do warfare against every temptation to appropriate the world's thought and that they would fall upon you and improve their knowledge of you day by day. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.