In his sermon, Mike Davenport explores Jeremiah 9:23-24, emphasizing the importance of knowing and understanding God over boasting in wisdom, might, or riches. He explains that while God acknowledges the existence of wisdom, might, and riches, He warns against finding confidence or assurance in them. Instead, God calls for glorying in the understanding and knowledge of Him, as He exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness. Davenport illustrates this with the stories of Hannah and Nebuchadnezzar, contrasting their responses to God's revelation. Hannah's experiential knowledge of God led her to trust and praise Him, while Nebuchadnezzar's initial pride was broken down by God's intervention, ultimately leading him to acknowledge God's sovereignty. The sermon concludes with a call to glory in God alone, aligning with the teachings of the Apostle Paul, and encouraging listeners to seek a deep, experiential relationship with God.

Well, if you would, take out your copies of the Word of God and turn with me to the sermon text which is to be found in Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9. And when you've found it, if you would please stand for the reading of the text before the preaching of the word. Jeremiah 9 Jeremiah 9 our focus will be verses 23 and 24 Hear the word of the Lord 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 Oh Lord we thank you for this your word. Lord this is God breathed.

You have breathed this word and Lord it is profitable for us that we might be men and women made complete, ready for every good work. So, oh Lord, give us ears to hear, minds to understand, and hearts ready to obey. Reveal yourself to us. May we see you in your glory. We pray in Christ's holy name.

Amen. You may be seated. Well to understand these verses we need to grasp the context in which they are given. Jeremiah had a ministry of some 40 or so years among the people of Judah, and his voice was one of prophecy of judgment that God was bringing upon his called-out people. Jeremiah 3 21 and 22 and chapter 4 1 & 2 we read a voice was heard on the desolate heights weeping and supplications of the children of israel for they have perverted their way They have forgotten the Lord their God Return you backsliding children and I will heal your backsliding If you will return Oh Israel says the Lord return to me and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight then you shall not be moved and you shall swear the Lord lives in truth In judgment and in righteousness the nations shall bless themselves in him and in him They shall glory Note the overtures of mercy given out by the weeping prophet the one who was bringing these words of threatening of warning return and I will heal return and you shall not be moved But the message of the despised prophet Was not received the threatenings of the Lord Were not heeded the people continued in their backsliding ways and they in fact met the threatening of their God head-on with a sense of self-assurance.

We can ascertain from the Lord's response in our text that they gloried in something other than him. They gloried, that is to say they boasted in their own personal knowledge. They boasted in their own might as a nation and they boasted in their own wealth. They thought that these things would actually turn away God's threatenings from them, would be a shield against God's threatenings. They considered themselves out of the reach of God's warning.

And yet even just a simple perusal of the two verses that follow our text. God says, I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised. Yes, I'm going to bring judgment on Egypt, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, but also Judah. Why? For all those nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

They're uncircumcised in the heart. There was no threat only to the outside nations, to the uncircumcised. Israel got that. They had been used by God as God's tool of bringing punishment on those uncircumcised nations. But God's saying, you're no different.

You're uncircumcised of heart. You're not glorying in me. And brethren, be assured that if God brought such a warning to his old covenant people, a warning encompassing for them the here and now, consider how much greater the warning is for us as new covenant people, a warning all the greater when we consider that great day of judgment that awaits. Well, I would like for us to consider this passage under the following three headings. First, God's acknowledgement, God's acknowledgement.

Second, God's warning, His warning. Then third God's self revelation God's self revelation and we'll be spending the majority of our time in that latter one So don't think as I work through the first two points that it's going to be a 30-minute message It'll be the typical So first we see god's acknowledgement Note that god does not say Let not man glory as if he had wisdom Let not man glory as if he had any might let not man glory as if he had wisdom let not man glory as if he had any might let not man glory as if he had riches no God acknowledges the wisdom of the wise man. He acknowledges the might of the mighty man. He acknowledges the riches of the rich. There are, there are wise, mighty, and rich people in this world.

God is not here disputing the reality of these things. In fact, it is only by his own divine Providence that any of these can truly be said of any of us that we might be wise or Mighty and having a position of authority or or having riches It's God's divine providence Neither does God indicate that there is in any inherent sinfulness in being wise, mighty, or rich. He is not condemning the wise, the mighty, the rich because they are wise, mighty, or rich. You see, I think we are sometimes guilty of judging men and women wrongfully simply because they are wise, mighty, or rich. And does it not often occur when the status of those people in those particular areas exceeds ours that we start to point fingers?

Dear ones, let us be careful to not judge unrighteously for as the Lord told Samuel, you know, man looks on the outward condition, that's what we see, but it's God who sees the heart and he understands what's in the heart of all men and women. You know, as we read our Bibles, some of the most eminent saints in the Bible were very wise, some were mighty, and many were very rich. Not all, but there were some eminent saints who had these characteristics. But God does not stop with mere acknowledgement. Secondly, we see attached to that acknowledgement God's warning.

He gives a warning. You see, having acknowledged the reality of wisdom, might, and riches in men and women, God warns them to not glory in these things to not boast in these things to not put confidence in these things And brothers and sisters we need to heed this divine warning You see it is the tendency of each of our hearts to find confidence or assurance In any of these three things no matter how much or how little we have of them. But we do well to remember that God is not impressed with the things that so easily impress us. Okay? Remember that.

You young people, you young people, remember that. As you think about your peers, you think about your friends, God is not impressed with the things that so easily impress us. He's not. God's not impressed with these things at all. At all.

The fact of the matter is that these are all things that that we acquire during our life. We don't come into this world wise. Some of you kids think you are. You're not. You're not.

We don't come into this world wise. We don't come into this world wise we don't come into this world mighty We're very dependent when we come into this world None come into this world rich Nobody brings a wallet or a purse. Nobody brings money, riches. We don't come into the world with these things. We are not any of these coming into the world.

And as we saw from our study in Ecclesiastes some years ago death itself has a leveling effect when it comes to the acquiring of these things. Solomon said, man I looked at the end of all men, the rich man, he had the same ending as the poor man. And so it is, it has a leveling effect. In 1 Timothy 6, 6 through 10, we read, now godliness with contentment is great gain and it's it's interesting my next sermon in the series as we kind of bring the Ten Commandments to a close and thinking about that tenth commandment of not coveting my next message is going to be on contentment. This message is on godliness, knowing God, And he says now godliness with contentment is great gain For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain We can carry nothing out and having food and clothing with these we shall be content but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money.

And that love for money is born out of a confidence in it, a boasting in it, a glorying in it. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed From the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows Dear ones think about it Why why should we boast and put our boasting in something that first of all is not ours by virtue of who we really are as created beings. Second of all was granted to us simply by the divine providence and prerogative of God. Third of all is temporal at best and not even guaranteed for the remainder of life in this world, and fourth of all will in no way have an impact on our standing before God on the final day. Why would we put our confidence?

Why would we boast about such things? When we boast in our wisdom, might, or riches, We actually declare our ignorance of God Not necessarily our intellectual knowledge But our experiential We're showing Experiential ignorance How can we stand before the God of the earth and boast of anything? Sure, if our eyes are on the horizontal and we began comparing ourselves with each other in this room, we may convince ourselves that we have something to boast of, but lift your short-sighted gaze upon God in all of His glory, in his essence of who he really is and let your thoughts rest upon him and then in the light of his presence let us ask ourselves how our knowledge compares to the all-knowing God the one who did not acquire knowledge but who himself is omniscient. Let us ask ourselves how our might compares to the one who simply spoke and things came into existence out of nothing. Let us ask in his presence how our riches compare with the one who owns all and who has need of nothing.

You know, we read from Job earlier in our service, all those men waxed eloquent, All they knew God. They didn't. They boasted in their own wisdom, their own strength, their own might. But thankfully, God doesn't just leave us here at the warning. There is a third point in our passage, God's self-revelation, God's self-revelation.

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 you see God doesn't leave us with nothing to glory us with nothing to glory in. He gives us a resting place for our boasting. It is a boasting, It's hard to imagine this, but it is a boasting that strips away all false assurance, all self-sufficiency, all self-absorption, all pride, all idolatries of the heart. It is a boasting that actually embraces our weakness. It embraces our frailty.

It embraces our dependency, our mortality, our nothingness. There is a boasting and a glorying that does that and the very fact that God tells us what to glory in and what to boast in that fact prohibits all other boasting even if the focus of our boasting is something other than the wisdom the might and the riches. If that shoe doesn't fit you, God says if you're going to glory, glory in this. He sets what our boasting is to be in. If there is going to be any glorying, boasting, confidence, then let it be this, says Yahweh, that He understands and knows me.

God gives us something to soak our thoughts and meditations in, something to sink the teeth of our confidence in, something to rest our faith and hope in. In the original language, those words understand and know, coupled together like they are, they convey both an intellectual knowledge and an experiential knowledge. It's both. It's not enough to have bare intellectual knowledge. There's to be an experiential knowledge.

It's the same word for know that we find between husband and wife in the Old Testament. It's an experiential knowledge. We are to glory in. We are to boast in the fact that we know the God of heaven, both intellectually and experientially. Now obviously The emphasis of the text is not on the boasting itself.

That's not what the emphasis is on. The emphasis is on what it is we are to boast in. God's self-revelation? God's self-revelation to us. We are to glory in the fact that God has made himself known and that he can indeed be known.

He is certainly not calling us to an empty boasting. Just because we sit inside the walls of this church, we are not to boast in comparing ourselves to others who are not sitting under the preaching of the Word. It's not an empty boasting. It's a boasting in the actual understanding and knowing of Him. You see, We go around talking about many things, right?

We do. We go around thinking about many things. We go around talking about many things. Often things that tend to make us look good or things that we're hoping will increase the interest of others in the things that we're interested in. Can we in our heart of hearts say as the psalmist in Psalm 44 8 in God we boast all day long and praise your name forever can you say that can you say that That in God you boast all the day long.

Hannah, the mother of Samuel, was well aware of the sovereignty of God when it came to the matters of wisdom, might, and riches. She was one indeed who gloried, who boasted in her God. You see, she understood and she knew her God. And because she knew God, she looked to him with great expectations. She prayed to him expecting great things.

Look with me at her prayer recorded in 1st Samuel 2. I'd like for your eyes to fall upon the text if you could turn there with me. First Samuel chapter 2. And as we look at this passage consider her grasp of the futility of glorying in wisdom, might, and riches. Consider also the grasp that she had on the nature and essence of our God.

It was not an intellectual knowledge alone, but an experiential knowledge of our God. And listen to that experience born out by her as she responds in her life to the intellectual knowledge she had of God. We have much to learn from this dear woman. First Samuel 2 and Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord, I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. No one is holy like the Lord for there is none besides you nor is there any rock like our God.

Talk no more so very proudly. Let no arrogance come from your mouth for the Lord is the God of knowledge and by Him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and those who stumbled are girded with strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, and she who has many children has become feeble the Lord kills and Makes alive he brings down to the grave and brings up The Lord makes poor and makes rich.

He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and he has set the world upon them. He will guard the feet of the Saints but the wicked shall be silent in darkness for by strength no man shall prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces. From heaven He will thunder against them.

The Lord will judge the ends of the earth he will give strength to his king and Exalt the horn of his anointed This woman knew her God She knew her God and she knew him experientially. She went away from the temple that day that Eli had spoken to her And she went home a different woman Resting in her God Trusting in her God and he brought every promise made to her he brought it to completion And she feared him and she gave him praise But I want us to look at another biblical character, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar. And I ask you once again to turn this time to Daniel chapter 4 the book of Daniel in chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar was one who Boasted in himself in his wisdom his might his riches and indeed He had much of which he could boast While his eyes were cast in a horizontal direction But dear one we see here that Hannah in her weakness and in her vulnerability knew what Nebuchadnezzar in all of his self-sufficiency didn't. Hannah knew her God.

Hannah knew her God. Nebuchadnezzar on the other hand ignored the God who had shaken him time and time again out of his senses, who sought to who sought to get his attention time and time again. But Nebuchadnezzar refused and God in his mercy, in his loving kindness that we read about in our text brought Nebuchadnezzar to an end of himself and then and only then was Nebuchadnezzar willing to lift his eyes off the horizontal and lift them vertically and gaze upon the might the majesty and the riches of God. Only then was he could he see how destitute he was and how he needed that strength might and riches that only God could give and only then could Nebuchadnezzar in his declarations sound anything like the prayer of Hannah. And dear one, as we read this text and we see what God did to Nebuchadnezzar to bring him to his senses, is there someone here today that it would take such an act of God to do what he did to Nebuchadnezzar to bring you to your senses, To take your eyes off of yourself and to look to Christ Well in chapter 4 here we we have Nebuchadnezzar Writing about what happened Okay, so he's he's looking back.

So we he's writing a declaration to his kingdom, let me tell you what God's done. And so he goes back in time and he tells them about a dream he had he tells them about Daniel Belta Shazer who came and told him what the dream was about and then he said the dream came true And this is what came out of the dream god had mercy on me god had mercy And he wants the kingdom to know He's ready To decrease So that god may increase chapter four Nebuchadnezzar the king to all peoples nations and languages that dwell in all the earth peace be multiplied to you. I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are His signs and how mighty His wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation.

Notice the focus. Focus is on God. It wasn't like that before. We're gonna read about that. So here he goes back and he's telling what happened now.

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house and flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream which made me afraid and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. Therefore I issued a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers came in, and I told them the dream, but they did not make known to me its interpretation. But at last, Daniel came before me.

His name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God in him is the Spirit of the Holy God and I told the dream before him saying Belteshazzar chief of the magicians because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God is in you and and no secret troubles you explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen and its interpretation these were the visions of my head while on my bed I was looking And behold a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong. Its height reached to the heavens and it could be seen to the ends of all the earth. Imagine a tree like that children. No matter where you went, how far you went from home, you could still see that tree.

That's a tall tree. Its leaves were lovely, its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it. The birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven.

He cried aloud and said thus, chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit, let the beasts get out from under it and the birds from its branches. Nevertheless, leave the stump and roots in the earth bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let him graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from that of a man let him be given the heart of a beast and let seven times pass over him this decision is by the decree of the watchers and the sentence by the word of the holy ones in order that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men gives it to whomever he will and sets over it the lowest of men this dream I king nebuchadnezzar have seen now you pelteshazzar declare its interpretation Since all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy god is in you." Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished for a time and his thoughts troubled him.

So the king spoke and said, Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation trouble you. Belteshazzar answered and said, My Lord, may the dream concern those who hate you and its interpretation concern your enemies. The tree that you saw which grew and became strong, whose height reached to the heavens and which could be seen by all the earth, whose leaves were lovely and its fruit abundant in which was food for all under which the beasts of the field dwelt and in whose branches the birds of the heaven had their home. It is you, It is you, O King, who have grown and become strong. See, there's the acknowledgement, just like we saw in our text.

There's the acknowledgement. For your greatness has grown and reaches to the heavens and your dominion to the end of the earth and then as much as the king saw a watcher a holy one coming down from heaven and Saying chop down the tree and destroy it But leave it stump and roots in the earth bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let him graze with the beasts of the field till seven times pass over him. This is the interpretation, O King, and this is the decree of the most high Which has come upon my lord the king They shall drive you from men Your dwelling Shall be with the beast of the field and they shall make you eat grass like oxen they shall wet you with the dew of heaven and seven times shall pass over you till you know till you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses. And inasmuch as they gave the command to leave the stump and roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be assured to you after, after you come to know that heaven rules.

Therefore, O King, let my advice be acceptable to you break off your sins by being righteous and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor perhaps Perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity. That same here in the midst of the warnings and threatenings just like we saw in the beginning of Jeremiah. Here's mercy held out. Here's mercy held out. But just like the Jews in Jeremiah's day Nebuchadnezzar didn't want to hear.

And he says in verse 28, all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. It came upon me. At the end of the 12 months he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. The king spoke saying, is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty. While the word was still in the king's mouth.

A voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you. And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, they shall make you eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you until you know, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he chooses." That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men and ate grass like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws and at the end of the time I Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven he got his eyes off the horizontal He got his eyes off the horizontal.

He got his eyes off the horizontal and his eyes went vertical. I lifted my eyes to heaven and my understanding returned to me and I blessed. Now here's the experiential knowledge side of it. I blessed the Most high and praised and honored him who lives forever. For his dominion, unlike mine, is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation.

All the inhabitants of the earth, kings included, are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one, no one, not even I can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? At the same time that he acknowledged this, My reason returned to me and for the glory of my kingdom my honor and splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me.

I was restored to my kingdom an excellent majesty was added to me but there's a difference all that he had was as it was but his heart is different. His heart's different. What does he say? Now, now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth and his ways justice and those who walk in pride he is able to put down. God declares himself in our passage.

It's a self-revelation. I am the Lord. That's what we are to know. That's what we are to understand. I am the Lord, exercising loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I delight, says the Lord.

You see, he declares both who he is and what he delights in He is Yahweh the covenant making the covenant keeping God. He exercises loving kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth We can know Him through the Scriptures. This is how we know Him. This is how we know Him both intellectually and how we know Him experientially as we meditate upon what we learn here. We can know Him from His Scriptures and we can know Him through these very exercises that he mentions here that flow out of his being in nature.

This is his self-revelation. Dear brothers and sisters, we can know him. We can know Him. God also finds delight in Himself in these very things that are His very nature. He takes delight in.

He delights in them. He is satisfied in himself. And dear ones, if God can glory in himself, if God who is all-sufficient can find delight in his own ways. Cannot we, as mere mortal men and women, find such delight in our God? If he can find delight in himself, cannot we Can we not glory in him and in the fact that we can actually understand and know the God of heaven and earth Well, how does this passage instruct us where we are?

Well the Apostle Paul he applies the understanding of this passage in the following way in 1 Corinthians 1 26 to 31. We quoted it earlier together. It has to do with our calling as God's people. As God's people, this is our calling to know and to understand him. For you see you're calling brethren that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called." I believe I read somewhere that I think it was Queen Elizabeth, it was one of the monarchs that was quoted as saying, my favorite letter of the alphabet is the letter M.

The letter M! They were like, why is that? Well, if it weren't for the letter M, this text would say, not any who are mighty, not any who are noble. So, I'm thankful for that letter M. But nonetheless, not many are called who are according to the flesh, mighty and noble.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has Chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are why that no flesh should glory in his presence But of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that has it is written he who glories let him glory in the Lord And again and 2nd Corinthians 10 17, but he who glories let him glory in the Lord So are you in Christ Jesus Has he become for you wisdom from God? Even your righteousness your sanctification your redemption As you sit here this very moment, You're glorying in something. You're boasting in something. You are confident in something.

Is it Christ? Is it Christ? You see, God is at work through his gospel and through his spirit and through his church in specific ways that no flesh should glory in his presence. That is, that no flesh should glory in any other thing except God and God alone. He's the Lord.

He will not give his glory to another, any other being or any other thing. For those of us who have professed that we have died to self, may our response be like that of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 6 14 but God forbid God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. I've been crucified. Why should I boast in my wisdom, my strength, my riches? I'm dead to the things of this world.

May my boast be in Christ, in Christ alone. And if you do not know Christ, understand that God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the three persons of the Trinity, the one God in three persons has made himself known through his word. He's made himself accessible to you so that you can know him. He has declared who he is. And you, my dear friend, no matter your background, you can know this God for yourself.

You can know him. You can know him. You youngest children here today, you can know this God. Glory in that. Glory in that.

If you search for him with all your heart, he said he'll be found. And when you find him, glory in him. Glory in him. Make your boast in him. I declare to you, you will not be disappointed you will not be disappointed well let's pray and ask God's blessing upon this word.

Oh, Lord, we thank You and praise You for Your Son, Jesus Christ. May our boast be in Him and Him alone. Lord, let Him who glories glory in this, that they know you and understand you of who you are, that you are Yahweh, and that you exercise your loving kindness but also your judgment and your righteousness here in the earth, for you delight in these things. Help us, O Lord, in Christ's name. Amen.

Well, as we turn to our time before the Lord's table, I invite you to turn to a text that was quoted in a prayer earlier today, John 17.