Well, once again, it's a great joy to be with you, and I trust as we look at the Word of God this evening, and we consider our souls, and what Jesus Christ has done, that our message will be a blessing to each and every one. We're turning tonight to the book of the prophet Jeremiah, and chapter 9, and to verses 23 and 24. You'll note that I didn't read this portion as one of our scripture readings, but I hope you'll also notice as I read these two verses to you that a portion of them was quoted in 1 Corinthians right at the very end of the chapter. Jeremiah chapter nine and verse 23. 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 glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. In this chapter, Jeremiah is speaking of the people of Judah, God's ancient people. And they had turned their back upon the Lord. They had turned to idolatry and they no longer gloried in the Lord that had chosen and blessed them. They had become proud of their own wisdom and their shrewdness. Yes, they were often under attack, but they had the idea that by virtue of their acumen, their skill in foreign policy, playing off one nation, one party against another, forming alliances, of convenience to protect themselves that through their own wisdom they could be kept safe, that they would be blessed and continue to exist. They imagined themselves to be secure, that these things were in their own power. They had their own resources to call upon and then they could go for help outside of their nation should they need to. They were, and of course the Jewish nation continues to have a reputation for being financially astute. They knew how to drive a hard bargain and enriching themselves through favourable trading deals. But the Prophet and the Lord God through this chapter expressed their sadness and their outrage at their disobedience to the Lord their God. that they should rely on their wisdom, their power, and their riches. And Jeremiah, throughout the book, is warning them of the judgment that is to come, that they are soon to be invaded, that there's going to be mass destruction, that they'll be taken away into captivity and into slavery. And the Apostle Paul, he takes up this little section of the book of the prophet Jeremiah and in that passage he uses it and he goes on to show that it applies equally to all of us, all mankind. This warning, 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 glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight. This verse. applies just as much to us as it does or did to the people of Judah all those centuries ago. So we'll look at it together this evening. As creatures, as those who are created, we are made to boast. There is a sense in which we are designed to glory. It's a part of who we are. It's part of our makeup to glory. We might speak of taking pride in our appearance. We might speak of taking pride in our work and in our achievements. We might speak of taking pride in others. All of these things are a part of our makeup and natural to us. but all of them are capable of abuse. All of them are capable of stretching and taking far too far, so that even in things like this, they become sinful. And the truth of the matter is, as this passage sets before us, our instinct is to glory in ourselves, in our own wisdom, in our own power, in our own riches. We misuse these things and we find something to glory in and to boast of. And what should be a good feature in our makeup becomes something that is distorted. It is hurtful to us and dishonouring to God. And like those people in Judah, we glory and depend upon ourselves, upon our wisdom. our power and our riches. Now it's very clear in these verses, the instruction that the Lord God gives to the prophet Jeremiah is, 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. And Jeremiah here is called upon to expose the folly of trusting in our wisdom, in our power, and in our riches. And that's what my great task this evening is, to seek to show that to trust in our own wisdom, power, and riches, rather than the real wisdom The real power and the real riches that are to be found in Jesus Christ can only lead to our hurt both here on earth and in that future realm where we must stand before our God and give an account of our lives. Well let's consider then first of all pride in our wisdom. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. The wisdom here that is being spoken of is the wisdom of the world, man's own wisdom. And it's an amazing thing, we've hinted at this already, that something that God has given us, something that is essentially good, we have taken and abused and twisted and distorted and has become something that is against us. We're given, aren't we, the faculty of thought, the capacity to reason, the ability to understand and to take in knowledge and wisdom. This is something that is very good. It raises us above the rest of the created order and it is a marvellous God-given power. However, the wisdom, that acumen that we're given, is always limited. There's a boundary. It can only go so far. And the very wisest among us, those who have the greatest amount of knowledge, We only have but a drop in the ocean of all the knowledge that there is that's found in the Lord our God supremely. There's a constraint on our wisdom. So even as we begin to think of these things, we can see that there are limitations and therefore to glory in our wisdom is to glory in something that is very trivial. You might think of a child who's just learned to count one, two, three, and imagining themselves to be some master mathematician. The idea, of course, is preposterous. But what we find in ourselves is we have, we accumulate a little wisdom. It may even be a lifetime of accumulated wisdom. It may be a vast amount of wisdom, humanly speaking, that we accumulate. And yet compared to all the wisdom that there is, and the wisdom of God, it is just a tiny fraction. And it's limited also in this. that by our own power of thought, by our own power of reason, none of us can answer the big questions of life. None of us can give a reason for the purpose of life and the reason for our existence. And none of us, by our own strength of reason, can find out God. can have some sense of Him and determine who He is. And yet such is our arrogance that we imagine ourselves to be so wise. We glory in our wisdom and we trust in the things, the conclusions that we come to and we even have the audacity to make pronouncements regarding our God, whether we'll accept Him whether we'll acknowledge Him, whether we even believe that He exists. And we, with our puny knowledge and wisdom, stand in judgment over God. Let not the wise man, even the wisest among us, glory in his wisdom. Of course, it's so true also in spiritual matters, isn't it? This limitation on our wisdom. You've heard the saying, haven't you? A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. You know, we've never lived in a more educated age, more sophisticated. We've never lived in an age where such great advances have been made. and yet so much ignorance about spiritual matters. Our focus, you see, the wisdom that interests us, the knowledge that we want to acquire is anything but the knowledge of God, the knowledge of his ways, the knowledge of salvation, the knowledge of how we can be right with God. Earthly wisdom is left floundering. And all we can do is engage in endless speculation when it comes to the big things of life. We have no answers. Mere earthly wisdom simply cannot address those big questions of life. But actually we can go further than that. Because the wisdom of this world stands in settled antagonism to the wisdom of God. and to anything spiritual. Indeed it says, if I can't scientifically prove this, then I won't think about it. And we'd rather turn to atheism and to accept what it has to say about life. than to listen to the word of God and to the wisdom that he reveals to us in that word. Others these days, and we see this even in our land, are turning to paganism, are willing to go down any pathway of folly, some kind of spiritual pathway, imagining that that will give them the wisdom that they need, anything. but what is taught in the Word of God. The wisdom of this world makes itself into its own God. And indeed it goes further and says, if there is anything that I can't explore, then it must be something that is barren and pointless. And the height of wisdom seems to be to deny any concern about soul matters, about sin, and about eternity. If it's not to do with the here and now, discount it, set it aside, ignore it. That's human wisdom, worldly wisdom. It refuses to acknowledge its debts and proper subjection to the wisdom of God. God's wisdom you see is so marvellous. His wisdom is a wisdom that acts and accomplishes so much. What can mere earthly wisdom accomplish? Oh yes, it can lift people a little in their human comforts, but it can't change a character. It can improve their earthly circumstances while they're here below. but it has nothing to say about eternity and the destiny of the soul, whereas the wisdom of God is a wisdom because it is revealed, because it comes from God to us. It is a wisdom that accomplishes so much. The wisdom of God, which according to worldly wisdom is so foolish, is a wisdom that changes and transforms lives. It's seen in Christ coming into the world. God in his wonderful love and mercy, determining to save a people for himself and sending the Son of God to act on behalf of those who would be saved. It tells us of Christ's perfect obedience. while here on earth not a sin, not a blemish upon his character. He did what we could never do and fulfilled God's law in every particular and then went to the cross at Calvary and in his death upon the cross died as a substitute, took the place of boys and girls, adults who would be saved and bore their penalty in their place. This is true wisdom. And this alone can change and transform a soul, a life, and bring us to God. And yet the wisdom of the world regards all this as foolishness. It's foolish to speak in that way. What can someone doing something 2,000 years ago possibly have any relevance to me? and yet his suffering and death. The wisdom that is encapsulated in all that he accomplished is something that changes and transforms our life. And as I've already said, human wisdom, the wisdom of the world, stands against God, resists God, wants nothing to do with God, and as a result of that, stands under the condemnation of God. It will be done away. It distracts from true wisdom and it will be judged. I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, says God, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. while you've come to a service of worship, a gospel meeting this evening. In what spirit have you come? Is it with a sense that you are wise, you are sufficient, you have understanding, knowledge enough? Oh, let me seek to persuade you that your dependence on your own wisdom, your own knowledge, is futile. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Power is the second aspect that we must seek to show the futility of. Human power. Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Some of you here are very young. You're at the peak of your strength and your physical, your bodily abilities. You have great powers. You're fast. Your mind is fast. You're capable of doing many wonderful things. You have many powers. But let not anyone hear glory in their physical prowess, because that is diminishing as time passes. You'll find that one after another of those powers begins to dissipate. and you no longer are so quick of mind, quick of body, no longer as strong as you used to be. When we're young, we have that confidence in our physical ability. We see it in London. Please, if you're young here, I'm not suggesting you do this, but we see young people in the city and they run across the road so confident that though there's a stream of traffic, they're going to get to the other side. Perhaps they do. In the vast majority of cases, no doubt they do. But their self-confidence in their physical prowess, their abilities in these things, that won't last forever. Let not the mighty man, the man of power, glory in his might, but then there is the power of social position. It's maybe not so relevant today. We live in a society which is in many ways much more level than it used to be and yet there are still some who regard the power that comes from their particular position in society as something that they glory in and revel in and to some degree depend upon. But are you telling me that an accident of birth renders you in any way different from all the rest of mankind and those that you regard as your lowers? Yes, while here, that accident of birth may give you access to certain privileges. and take you to places and so on and give you special opportunities and a measure of power and of influence. But that accident of birth is just that. In the eyes of God, as he looks upon us, we're all equal. We speak, don't we, of equality. And turning again to the wisdom of the world, the wisdom of the world is that we're all as good as one another. But the wisdom of God is that we're all as bad as each other. We're all equally sinful. And an accident of birth doesn't elevate us, doesn't lift us, doesn't give us any additional power. We must look away from those things. And then there's the power of authority. It may be that you have a measure of authority in the workplace, but how long will that last? It can only last the length, the span of your career at most. And it may be that external circumstances, a change in the fortune of the financial situation, your company may fold up, your authority may melt away. You may no longer have that authority. It may be that you're superseded by someone else. Someone takes your place. Well, whether it's within a company. or whether it's the authority, the power that comes from being elected to a position of responsibility, even in society, all of these things are subject to fickle forces, things that can change. And over the passage of time, that authority will diminish, will go away. Imagine that you accomplish something. by the power that is invested in you. You accomplish something, yet at the end of life, within 10 years, it'll be largely forgotten, or at best, will be a footnote in the history book somewhere. Nothing more. And that power that you wielded for a time will count for nothing in terms of spiritual matters before your God. All our power will come to an end. Let not the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches. We read, didn't we, from Psalm 49. We read there of those who accumulate fabulous wealth, maybe buy a lot of property. They're very, very wealthy. They have everything that money can buy. But if they glory in their riches, Well then, the testimony of scripture to them is summed up in two words. Thou fool. Thou fool. Remember the parable. This night, thy soul will be required of thee. At death, everything that I've earned, everything that I've accumulated, none of it can be taken with me. It was said of someone who died, who was evidently quite wealthy. What did he leave behind? And the answer is everything. He left it all. None of us can take those riches with us. Let not the rich glory in his riches. but I want to come to true wisdom, true power, and true riches. We see these things in verse 24. Give up your trust in your own wisdom. Set aside your imagined power. Don't count upon those riches, but let him that glorieth Glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. These are true wisdom, power, and riches. To glory in the Lord, and to come and understand and know him. This is an astonishing thought, that God may be known. That we may, in a measure, understand and know God. That's something to glory in. That's something to depend upon. That's something to stake your soul upon. That you may understand and know your God. And this is how he has revealed himself. He is the Lord which exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness. Loving kindness. Oh, what a glorious term for our God. This is real wisdom, to understand the loving kindness of the Lord. I've been trusting in my own wisdom. my own power, my own riches, I begin to see through those things. I long and desire to know something of my God and I'm astonished to learn, astonished to discover that this God, who by my rejection of him and by my sin I stand in enmity to, looks down upon me in loving kindness, a God of loving kindness. He is a God who in spite of our sin, in spite of our rejection of him, is determined to save a people for himself. You often meet, don't you, love without kindness. That's possible. You sometimes meet kindness without love. but in the Lord our God we have loving kindness, love and kindness perfectly joined together. He looks down upon us in love and he acts in kindness towards us in sending the Lord Jesus Christ to suffer and die on our behalf. We see his loving kindness in the fact that he took the initiative in our salvation. We would never come We would never acknowledge that our wisdom is futile, that our power is weakness, that our riches count for nothing. And yet in his mighty condescension, he takes the initiative in coming for us and in coming to us, even though he is the offended party. He even extends his grace to those who deserve only judgment for their rejection of him. Oh, think of the loving kindness of our God in sending Jesus Christ so that we could be forgiven, so that we could be given true wisdom, real power, power over our sin, and real riches. Blessing here below, and at the end of life's journey, be ushered into that glorious and heavenly realm. But look, it goes on. I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, but also judgment, justice, we might say. That doesn't seem quite to fit, and yet it does, because as we look to Jesus Christ, and his suffering and death upon the cross at Calvary, there, in perfection, love and justice were combined. That God found a way, if we can so speak, of the transcendent, infinite, all-wise God. God found a way so that he could satisfy his justice by punishing our sin and yet showing loving kindness and mercy and grace in forgiving us and changing us and bringing us to himself. It's an astonishing thing that there upon the cross, as Christ suffered, justice was poured out upon him instead of us. But then think of this. He is a God of judgment. Every sin that I have ever committed, every sin that I will ever commit, if I'm among those who come to Jesus Christ for true wisdom, power and riches, every sin was punished in the Lord Jesus Christ, not one was omitted, not one was overlooked, not one remains against the name of those who come to him for pardon and for forgiveness. What an encouragement to come and to seek his pardon and his forgiveness, this real wisdom, power and riches. I come to one who is just, And having punished Christ, having poured out his wrath upon him, must receive me, must forgive me, must save me, if I come trusting in him and repenting of all my sin. It's such an encouragement, his justice to come. And then righteousness. I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness. He is the God who keeps his promise. There are many promises found in the Word of God, encouraging sinners to come for pardon and forgiveness. Every promise will be made good to those who come to him for pardon. He is righteous. He cannot withhold that blessing. Oh, I feel almost bad speaking in that way, but God binds himself to his promises and in righteousness receives repentant sinners and blesses all who bow the knee to him. That righteousness is seen also in that what Christ did in perfectly obeying God's law, his righteousness is credited to us. And so both our sin is paid for and we're also cloaked in the righteousness of Christ, so that as God looks upon us, he sees us as though we'd never sinned, but also deserve the blessings of heaven and of eternal life, because he sees us in him and in Christ's righteousness. These are amazing things. And the verse ends, in these things I delight, saith the Lord. That's another promise. If you glory in the Lord and abandon all glorying in your own wisdom, power and riches, and come to him for true wisdom, true power, true riches, because God delights in these things. He will save. He will bless. He'll receive you. You'll be given new wisdom, an understanding of life, where we've come from, why we are as we are. You'll have a new understanding of the Word of God. You'll draw wisdom from that revelation. You'll have an understanding of where we're going and the judgment that is to come and the glories of eternity. Your mind will be expanded as you're given true wisdom. You'll be given true power, a new power, power over sin that you never had before, before sin drove you. But in salvation, as the Holy Spirit is given to you, you're given a new power to do battle with those sin tendencies. You'll see that you make progress, not because of yourself, but because of what Christ has done for you. New power. You'll be given riches. Riches here below. Let me name just a few. The riches of God's Word. What was a dry book becomes a living book for you. Riches, glories, you'll see in God's Word that you never saw before. It'll be your delight, your riches. You'll be brought into a new family. You'll have fellowship and many joys as you share with others who have the same experience of pardon and forgiveness and have their own testimony of grace. And as you share together in worship and in service together, that fellowship is to you something so wonderful. It's a little glimpse of what heaven will be like. to be with those who have come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Wisdom, power, riches. If we glory in the Lord and trust in what Christ has done, those things that the Lord delights in will be given, those true wisdom, power and riches, all come to Jesus Christ. Abandon your foolish attempt to go through life depending on your own wisdom, power and riches, and trust what Christ has done and what he has done alone, and be saved. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and loving Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that We are so easily drawn into glorying in those things which this world vaunts and holds to be of significance. We thank thee that thy word declares to us and reasons with us regarding the folly of such things. But we thank thee that it sets against those the glories to be found in seeking and finding the Lord Jesus Christ, O may each and every one of us come to find true wisdom, power and riches as we trust in the Saviour who has been provided, the Saviour who came, the Saviour who suffered and died for all who turn to Him. We ask these things in His name and for His sake. Amen. Our closing hymn this evening is the hymn 393. Hymn 393. I am trusting thee, Lord Jesus, trusting only thee, trusting thee for full salvation, great and free.