True glory is found not in human wisdom, might, or riches, but in knowing God, as Jeremiah's prophecy warns against boasting in worldly achievements. The sermon highlights the deterioration of Judah due to leaders forsaking God and the world's current trend of defying divine authority, drawing parallels to the impending judgment described in scripture. The core lesson is that genuine understanding and knowledge of God, characterized by His loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, is the only worthy pursuit. Ultimately, knowing God is presented as eternal life, attainable only through Jesus Christ, who is made wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification for believers.
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to the prophecy of Jeremiah the Old Testament prophecy of Jeremiah I would like to begin reading in chapter nine and verses twenty three and twenty four the words that are written by the Spirit of God through Jeremiah most timely words for the days in which we are living as they were timely in the days they were spoken back in the history of Jeremiah and God's earthly people. Thus says 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 loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, best the Lord. May God bless the reading of these precious words, spoken by Jeremiah and written by him, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and delivered by Jeremiah the prophet himself to the people of Israel or the people of Judah in particular long ago. The prophet Jeremiah was the most unusual one. More than any other.
He lived in days that were very terrible. There were the closing days of the history of the kings of Judah, beginning with the godly reign of Josiah and ending ultimately with the wicked reign of Zedekiah at the close of that great period when God came in judgment and brought Nebuchadnezzar the greatest monarch the most illustrious monarch that has ever been known in human history among the Gentile nations to whom God gave the nations of the world long ago.
You were about to read the third chapter in the book of Daniel, and you will realize and recognize that in the history of Daniel, that you will find in that third chapter of Daniel, The greatest moment the world has ever known in the Gentile powers of the nations of the earth was pitified by a head of gold in the dream that God gave to Nebuchadnezzar, which he once forgot long ago. Jeremiah's ministry perhaps covers a period of nearly forty years, and it suffered much.
not only for God and with God, but he suffered much at the hand of his own countrymen, to whom he ministered the word of the Lord in faithfulness. And in those perilous days when the nation, and may I emphasize particularly a truth that is very little confessed and realized, that in the sight of God, the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah, after the separation of the tribes, they were God's greatest treasure upon the earth, to be representing his government here below, and himself in the midst of his earthly people, typified by their temple, and greater still by the ark of the covenant.
Someday there will be a great nation upon the earth, and it's getting very near, but that nation is going to be the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel. If you know your Bible, you cannot deny that in the midst of their failure, shortcoming, disobedience, which we shall see, God assured them, someday under the reign of their Messiah, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, all the nations of the earth will be under their feet.
Today it's the opposite. As in the days of Jeremiah, When he saw the deterioration and the declension of his earthly people and of his earthly nation, there were perilous times. One great ministry of Jeremiah, if you read the prophecy through, he not only ministered to the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah, he ministered to the nations of the world. Read the prophecy. God says, I have made thee a prophet to all the nations. including the United States and all the nations that exist today.
And as Jeremiah lived in the dark days of the decline of the kingdom, when God took it away from his earthly people and gave it to Nebuchadnezzar and gave the authority of the world to the Gentiles, which it still is today, Jeremiah was paid for. and his ministry to God as he lived in those doctrines. But may I say frankly, I wish you would take it in. I wish I would take it in. We're getting near the end of the Gentile age. There's going to be a far worse condition than it was in Judah long ago. Amen. We're getting near the end of the Gentile nations in their power and in their glory, with no exception of any nation upon the earth.
She's called in the Word of God, in your New Testament, corroborated as well as your Old Testament teaching there. It's called the day of Jacob's trouble in the Old Testament in Jeremiah. It's called in the New Testament the Great Tribulation. And they say, my beloved, we are near that period. Jeremiah so ministered in that day as, praise God, what he was in his character, outstanding. He had sympathy in two directions. First he had his sympathy toward God, knowing how much God was grieved.
over the conditions of his earthly people long ago. May I ask you a simple question? How do you think God is grieved today over the moral or the immoral conditions of the world today? Jeremiah sympathized with God. He not only sympathized with him and thought for him but he felt with God over it. May I ask you a question. How do you feel with God as to how he thinks about the world? Not how you think about it.
Not what you think about it. What does he think about it? And if I know my Bible correctly, and I quote from Psalm nine and verse seventeen, these words, so true, the wicked should be turned into hell. and all the nations that forget God. Think it through. The greatest sin in Judah, they disobey even God's earthly people. They disobey God and defy him, wandered away from him.
That's what the world at large is doing today. There's a reckoning day, which I believe is very near. But not only did Jeremiah sympathize God with, he sympathized man with it. His heart ate for his people. But may I say, his people never ate in their hearts for him. He had a lonely ministry for forty years. ever speaking to the people of God, the message of God. That he felt for them. And he had persevering patience, though they mistreated and intrigued.
And if there's any prophet that never had one iota of success outwardly, it was Jeremiah. Read the whole book through. You'll never find one particle of success in his ministry. but he was faithful. Amen. You may not count success by outward appearance if you're faithful to God. The Lord Jesus said, when that day comes of reward for each servant, he will say, well done thou good and what? Faithful, not successful. Faithful servant.
And Jeremiah persevered in faithfulness in that day. Faithful to God, faithful to the people. He was faithful to the people when they hated him. He was faithful to the people when he had to tell them the drastic judgment that God was going to pour out upon the nation. Have you ever read the book of the Revelation? You cannot help but reading the last book in the Bible and see the judgment that God's going to pour out upon Florence, upon South Carolina, upon the United States, upon all the nations of the world.
Don't be dumb. We're taking it. We're nearing that day. The day of the Lord when His power in judgment by the sealed judgment, the trumpet judgment, the vile judgment, complete vital judgment, they're going to be poured out upon all the earth. It's not a popular message. I guarantee you go down to the Chamber of Commons in Florence, they'll tell you a nice story how we're going to be prosperous. In fact, I hear it over the news. Read the Word of God. Read the Word of God.
The moral conditions of today are such But according to the prophets of the scripture, we're getting at the end of the age. May I point out something to you. In chapter two of Jeremiah, please. Three verses I would like to mention quickly. For I wanted to notice that the deterioration happened long ago. Chapter two, I hope you have your Bible. If you do not listen very carefully. In chapter two of the book of Jeremiah, let me read verse eight, please. I'm going to read three verses. I want you to notice then. Verse eight, verse nineteen, verse thirty-five.
Verse eight, the priest said not, where is the Lord? And they that handled the law knew me not. The pastors or the rulers also transgressed against me. And the prophets prophesied by jail and walked out of things that do not profit. Here you have the leaders of the nation mentioned, priests, men who were supposedly to lead the people in the word of God and teaching. The rulers transgressed. The prophet of Jeremiah is still alone as the prophet of God against hundreds of others.
And any national deterioration, may I say carefully, begins with the leaders. The leader began in Judah. Go to verse thirteen and see how it continues. Or rather, verse nineteen, rather verse nineteen. God saying through the prophet, Thine own wickedness shall correct me, and thy backsliding shall reprove thee. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, said the Lord God of hosts.
For when deterioration begins in the rulership and the leadership of a nation, it produces wickedness. and business. I'm sure that sufficient evidence is before you and before me today that in our own nation wickedness, evil has increased among the people. Look at me in verse thirty-five. How the descent goes even further? Yet thou sayest because I'm innocent. We're not doing any wrong.
It's a language of the apostate condition. We're not doing any wrong. And may I say this very bluntly, the most licentious practices of humanity are public signs on your television publicity. In all forms of immoral society, it's considered the thing to do. We're innocent. Know what the Lord says? Surely his anger shall turn from me.
Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou saith, I have not sinned. I'll stop you today. We have now sinned. the guidance or the admonition of the Lord in times of national peril. Here was the nation in peril, and for forty years Jeremiah witnessed against it. The leaders, the people, and then the situation, I think Isaiah said, truth had fallen in the street. So you see the deterioration continues, and the inevitable result is what?
Blindness morally. Blindness morally. Sin cannot be recognized. Now may I say this, please take this in. When such a degrading condition begins, the momentum increases. The momentum increases, and it is increasing. With all that may start to be done, and may I say very frankly, what is seeking to be done doesn't go down to the root. It's trying to correct the truth when the tree is wrong.
Politicians are not dealing with what is the trouble, but what is the result of the trouble. and taking up policy instead of the question of sin. Sin. Sin. Back in the early days of our country's history, Jonathan Edwards, not much of an eloquent creature, I understand, but he preached a sermon in that day that he lived in in the a sinner in the hands of an angry God, that God used jointly to bring back many precious souls to God in salvation.
I don't know how far you get today, he decreased that. But may I say frankly, the nation of Judah was no exception. Those they were God's, and it was more, it was far greater in its condition, but for Judas to be such than even the Gentile nations. They represented God's soul. Look at me in chapter two again at verse thirteen, and see with me in this thirteen verse. What happened? What took place?
Reading in verse thirteen, God said, For my people have committed two evils. First, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. Let me repeat again. The national, together with the international conditions of today, can be quoted from Psalm nine in verse seventeen. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget who, God, may I ask you a question? Follow me. Have you been forgetting God? Someday you're going to meet him. Face to face.
And every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. And may I go further, nations have to give an account of themselves to God. God holds nations responsible for their conduct. for their behavior, the leadership of that nation he holds responsible for what takes place in that country. And the first thing that God says in this verse, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. The second thing he goes on to say, they not only forsake him, but they heal them out systems, their own systems of supply.
grow consistent that can hold no water. And what they followed you was absolutely helpless to keep them and maintain them as they filled out for themselves. Have you ever read the book of the judges? Have you never noticed at the end of it in that deterioration of the time of the judges at the close of the book, he said? Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Please, you're not responsible. Men are not responsible to do what they think is right in their own eyes.
We are responsible to do what God says in his words. And the breakdown goes down. And when people begin by denying the Lord, such as Judah did, and Israel, they end up by defying the Lord. And when nations deny the Lord as they are doing, they're going to end defying God. Go with me to Psalm chapter two. The second Psalm, if you have your Bible, I want to read the first three verses only, and indicate before you the prophetical words of the Holy Spirit regarding the end of the age and the end of the nation.
Let me read verse two, and when I read the word heathen, please let me say this. The word heathen in your Old Testament is simply the word nation. It's only an expression that refers to all the nations outside of Israel, the Gentile nations. And I'm sure you recognize that the Gentile nations from the days of Nebuchadnezzar have been controlling the world, down to this present day. God wanted his people Israel to control the world. Someday they will, but only under Christ their Messiah.
in their coming day of restoration. But the nations, he holds responsible, and they are denying him. Now notice how they defy him at the end. Verse one, two, three, let me read them. Why do the nations rage? And the people imagine a vain and impossible thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together. Now you may not believe this. But if you want to take it from God's word, you better. That when the end of the nations come, they're going to defy God. Kings and rulers will be together, set against them, taking counsel together, and know what they say.
They're against the Lord, and against his anointed. That anointed is no one else but Christ. And what do they say? Let us break their bands of thunder and cast away their cords from us. Now please, I'm not a politician. I'm just a simple sinner saved by grace, who thanks God has had the privilege of studying the precious word of God since he saved me. Well, let me say from this scripture, The whole nations of the world are going to get together and defy God.
That ain't very near. In the Middle East. And according to many prophecies, you've got to read Zechariah chapter forty. Read many of the old prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, name them all. As well as in your New Testament, on words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew twenty-four. That all men and nations are going to oppose. Greek second Thessalonians chapter two. There's going to be a man whom God calls by the Spirit the man a sin.
Blaspheming. Setting himself up as God. verifying man. And that's going to happen publicly. If you're concerned about oil prices, I think you've got to be concerned about, but you've got to be more concerned about the nations we're heading to that awful day, the man of sin. Who will set himself up, this God. And oh, that in Jeremiah's prophecy, May I fire him? We won't take the time to read it. But from the king himself, the last king, Zedekiah, and the princes and rulers of the land, down to the people, they defied God, whom they should have been worshipping.
Look, sin is still sin. I don't care what you say. You want to call sin. But I say everything that is contrary to the holiness of God is sin, whether it be small or great. And sin is sin, and may I say this, God is still God. The soul that sinned, it shall die, wrote Ezekiel. As we had in our reading, the world, God says, is guilty. of sin before him.
And there's a payday coming when the nations will meet him, and he will indeed judge him. Oh, how sad it is that God is forgotten. And in such times as it may I say this very frankly, today instead of taking up the problem of sin, they're taking up different policies how to deal with what's the result of sin and the only one that can deal with sin and its results is the Lord Jesus Christ in the full sin of life and life look at me in chapter forty four of Jeremiah for one more reference before we go to our scripture in chapter nine Jeremiah chapter forty four if you please I'd like to note note with you what God said to his people long ago in chapter forty-four and verse twenty-eight, where God said through the prophets to his people long ago, the day would come when they'd find out whose word would stand.
Let me go to verse twenty-eight and read it all through. Yet a small number that escaped the storm shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah that had gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there. They shall know whose words shall stand. Mine are theirs. Let me tell you. Frank, you want to pray? God, even after Nebuchadnezzar had captured the country and desecrated the temple. Told its people to stay and be obedient to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, because of their wickedness. And stay where they were. But no.
We're going down to Egypt. Pharaoh will help us. So say, go on. But he said, you're going to be destroyed. And he said, in that day you'll know whose word stands, theirs or mine. My beloved, I solemnly say it. I do it with all earnestness. The world is going to find God's word will stand. the United Nations on oceans, whatever you wish to call it, and all that countries together can never stop God. He read the last word. Now go to chapter nine.
Let's see for ourselves the admonition of God at such a time. Let me read again verse twenty-three and verse twenty-four. Thus test the Lord. Divine guidance. Divine admonition. Divine counsel. Listen to what he has to say. What we should do. 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 glorious glory in this. That he understandeth and knoweth me.
That I am the Lord which exercised loving kindness. judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things I do delight I want you to notice something in verse twenty three he directed words to the lives of the earth he directed words to the strong and the mighty in the earth he directed words to the rich do I need to say it Is it not the truth that the world today is concerned with its worldly wisdom? With its worldly power?
With its worldly riches? God said, you better not boast about it. I said, it's loving me even in respect to our own beloved nation and the power that God has given it to become as it has such a world power today. Don't you boast about it? Whether it's militarily, economically, socially, and any other way. No. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. My beloved, when you look at human wisdom, my, I get baffled sometimes.
When I try to understand the mechanics of all that's going on in computerizing and so on, like that, what that means? Man's wisdom. That God has committed it. And he boasts in it. His might. His power. God said, don't you boast about it. His riches. Don't you boast about it. does not discover clearly the character and the trend of this world? That's it.
Chapter one of the book of First Corinthians, God says the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Amen. When that wisdom may end, God says it's still foolishness to him. Oh, please may I remind you, that's what God says about human wisdom. And as far as might and power, can I be reminded with you that long ago God's mind and power caused the waters of the Red Sea to come apart and separate, to make a path for almost three million people across in safety.
And use the waters when they came back in judgment to destroy the enemy. May I even remind you too that in one night in the reign of Hezekiah the king, the angel of the Lord flew one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians in one night. Is that more than they ever queuing the wars in one night? God mighty God. My beloved Lord, who can say to him what to us now?
Let me ask you simple question. Were you able to stop you coming along here? Boy, I would have liked to, but I knew I couldn't. God's mind, God's power, Even the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, if they had only known who Christ was, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory if the princes of the world had known who he was. God said, don't you boast about your power. And in that day of judgment, we, Revelation chapter nineteen, and beginning at verse eleven to the end, when the Lord Jesus comes down to the earth, read Matthew chapter twenty-four and twenty-five, particularly how we will come with his holy angels to judge the world and wipe it out.
Read Daniel chapter two, and see at the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had of himself, the head of gold, and the Gentile laid down to the ten toes of the image, a little stone came with a round hand, crossed it, and crashed it to the ground, and the wind came along and blew it. It was never known anymore. And let me say this. Look, the word of God teaches that there will not be great Gentile nations after the Lord comes anymore. There's only one nation that's going to be great. It's going to be little Israel under the reign of their king, rolling with a rod of iron.
So when it comes to the wisdom of the earth, When it comes to the power, the might, when it comes to the wealth, means nothing to God. Don't boast about it. But now note in verse twenty-four. But let him that wants to boast, that the word glorious means, that him that glorious, glory in this, but that he understandeth and knoweth me. Now I want to ask you a question. Do you know God? Do you know God?
Do you know God? That's something to boast about when you can say, I know Him. I know God. Let me quote the words of the Lord Jesus. Or may I go on to say the illimitable, the vast extent, extension of all that God is is beyond comprehension. Now I quote the words of the Lord Jesus in John seventeen in verse three, when he prayed to the Father, this is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast met.
Oh, the knowledge of God, may I say frankly, to know God as far as you're able to know him is the noblest aim of human understanding. You may not get any doctorate degrees. It doesn't make a bit of a difference. In fact, you'll find yourself that the more you know him, the less you see the knowing. It's so great. Let him that glorious, glorious in this, that he knoweth, understandeth, and knoweth me. How can you know it?
And then as you have the proof of it, he said, if you knew me, You will find I'm a God that exercises loving kindness and judgment, meaning justice, righteousness, ending us. For in these things I delight. He said to his earthly people, you don't know me. Or you will be living differently. You're having trouble with your life? Ask yourself the question, do I know God? Is he the God of my life? The psalmist prayed in chapter forty-two, I think in verse eight, that in the daytime thou shalt thy loving kindness, and in the night thy song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
Is he the God of your life? I know this. He made you. I know this. He sees you. I know this. He thinks of you. I know this. He loves you. I know this! He sent his son to die for him. I know this. The only way to know God is through his dear son. Go with me to First Corinthians, will you please? Chapter one. Chapter one in First Corinthians. At the end of that chapter, you have some quotations from our scripture in Jeremiah. In chapter one, right at the end of the chapter, You find the beloved Apostle Paul, after writing about the wisdom of the world and the foolishness of it and so on.
Let me begin reading, if I may. I begin at verse twenty-nine, if I may. The base things, well, let me read verse twenty-seven to begin with. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. and they think of the world and things which are despised as God's chosen, yea, and the things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in its presence. My beloved me, I say this, when God is finished with his judgments of the coming upon the nations of the world, No flesh will be able to glory in what they have.
The only thing they will be able to do is acknowledge him and him alone. Now note the thirty-first, please. Here's the Apostle Paul writing to those who trusted the Lord Jesus. Christians in the church at Corinth. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus. May I say broadly, you can't know God unless you know Christ. You cannot know God unless you know Christ.
Said the Lord Jesus in John fourteen in verse six. as he spoke to Thomas, saying, Thomas, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh under the Father, but exclusively by me. May I ask the question, do you know Christ? Paul is saying to these Christians because you're in, ye know God, because you know Christ. because you know. Listen, you're not a Christian because you came to the church service this morning. You don't know God because you just came in this meeting.
The only way you know God, you have to have Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. I never knew God until that night. Praise His name. poor, guilty, held deserving, confessed sinner. I came to the Lord Jesus, acknowledging God had given him to be my Savior upon the cross of Calvary, paid the penalty, and sought the pardon for my sin. And I went home rejoicing, but God cried. And may I say, when you have them, you'll have them forever.
I give unto my sheep eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall any blossom out of my hand. My father which gave them, he gave greater than all. Neither shall any blossom out of my father's hand. Am I and my father, O one? I cried. And what has Christ done for me? No, then I'll take it. Who of God is made unto us? Now no. Wisdom. Let me say the wisest person in the city of Florence today, or the wisest persons, if I may put it in the plurality of it, are those who know Christ. Go down to your school with professorship and so on, atheists and so on, men that know not Christ.
And all the science of the world, they don't know Christ. If they don't know Christ, they don't have God's wisdom. He's made unto us. with them. No wonder the proverb writer wrote the words, He that winneth souls it was. Why? Are you here today without being saved? Your soul is lost and sin is taking you away from God and covering you down to a lofty double hell? Well that's the direction. The wicked shall be turned into hell.
And all the nations, then what? Forget God. My beloved, if you've forgotten God all through your life, you better start thinking. Because if you wind up in hell, you'll remember all through eternity. You've forgotten. But while you now can take Christ as your Savior, He made to you wisdom. But not only wisdom, please go on to sing. And righteousness. We read in our reading, There is none righteous. No, not one. There's none that do as good. Still all come out of the way. But when I took the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, he was made before God for me.
My righteousness. Amen. St. Corinthians chapter five, twenty-one. God has made him, his son, to be sinned, the sacrifice for us. He who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. My beloved brother, joy to realize, when I choose the Lord Jesus is my failure, God said, John, I'm going to put you on the robe of righteousness. My son's righteousness. He was made sin for you that I might clothe you with the righteousness of God. And in the righteousness of Christ, what does the old hymn say?
On Christ the solid rock I stand. No other ground. All other ground, rather, is thick and sand. For my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And God says to the nations today, I want to tell you, Frank, he's saying to the nations today, you better get to Christ. And then may I go further. It's made unto us not only righteousness, but sanctification, meaning to be set apart for God. And also redemption.