An Imperishable Boast

Mac you send a Crossway this morning. You have our friends Matt and Sherry

Eastman with you. When we think of Matt, we think of the word

opportunity. Yeah, Matt Eastman is planting a church near Magnolia, Texas this

year, and there is such a tremendous opportunity there to serve the people of

that community. And Matt is particularly eager to see an opportunity open for God's

word there amongst those people. And so we want to support that opportunity and

thank you for welcoming Matt Eastman as he brings God's word to you there at

Crossway this morning. Something that is far beyond what we could have ever imagined,

and something far more than what we even planned for. As we're seeing

God bring to us those who are unchurched, those who haven't been in church

or haven't been in church ever or a very long time. And it's a

challenge, like I said, because we're trying to launch and we need people

who are strong, who who are strong in their faith and who have been

discipleed and know how to mentor in shepherd others. But He's bringing to us

those who need shepherding, who need disciples and isn't that what the church is

all about? Right, So we're so grateful that God is doing this work

on his behalf for his glory, and it doesn't matter what our plans are.

He's going to do his thing and we get to just enjoy it and

kind of go along for the ride as he builds his church in Magnolia,

Texas. So please keep praying for us as we do that. And it

is my privilege this morning to share God's word with you. I often the

last time I was here actually was in covid when in twenty twenty when we

had to reserve seats online to be able to have a place to come and

worship, right, remember that, And we came and we visited with some

friends of ours that weekend, the Wootens. I think they're out there somewhere

but looking forward there they are looking forward to catching up with them afterwards.

But it was that was the last time that we were here to worship with

you all. My family, my lovely wife and my kids are over there.

That was the last time we were here to worship with cross Way the

family here and church planning wasn't even on the radar at that point. So

a lot has changed since then. God's worked in my heart. It has

called my family along with me and a number of others to join us in

planning a church in Magnolia. But again, it is my privilege to share

God's word with you. This morning, I asked that you would take a

moment to pause with me to pray and seek the Lord. How me,

Father, we pause to just posture our hearts to hear the word of the

Lord, to hear your word. And I ask Lord that you would speak

from my lips the words that alone you desire to be heard, and nothing

more and nothing less. So Father, I asked that you will meet us

here, that your spirit would be moving here in our midst, give us

ears to hear, hearts to receive, and then hands and feet to apply

it to our lives. They pray this in Jesus's name. And men,

please open your copy of God's Word. If you do need a Bible or

sermon notes, please raise your hand. Offshers can get that to you.

If you miss that, please raise your hand. They'll get that out to

you. Bible sermon notes. We're going to open our copies of God's Word

to Jeremiah nine twenty three through twenty four. All right, Jeremiah nine twenty

three through twenty four. That's where we'll spend our time today. And as

you're turning there, I'd like to share with you a little bit about this

book, a little bit about the history of Jeremiah. This book is known

as one of the major prophets, not because Jeremiah was a bigger, better

prophet than anybody else, but because it's just one of the longer prophetic books

that God has given us in his word. So simply just because it's longer,

it's considered a major prophet. Jeremiah served as God's prophet to the Kingdom

of Judah, all right. So he served there for about thirty nine years,

and during that time he saw the reigns of five different kings come through

during his prophetic time where he was serving a lord there in Judah, so

it was five kings in Judah. Jeremiah was guided to proclaim that the nation

of Judah would suffer famine, foreign conquest, plunder, and captivity, not

the things that you would want to hear from a prophet. Right from a

prophet, you want to hear God's blessing. Somebody who's speaking on behalf of

the Lord. You want to hear all these blessings and good things that you're

going to receive because you are God's people. This isn't what the people of

Judah heard. Jeremiah was appointed to reveal the sins of the people and the

punishment that was to come, so not a popular guy. In fact,

he was beaten, He was imprisoned, and even lowered into an empty and

left to die. God is faithful. He continued to rescue Jeremiah out of

those circumstances, and Jeremiah was faithful to remain obedient to the call that God

gave him to speak the truth of God's word to the people of Judah,

even when he knew they wouldn't repent, even when he knew the outcome was

their ultimate destruction, the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, the destruction of

Solomon's temple. They would not repent. He knew this, and because of

this, Jeremiah is known as the weeping Prophet. He shed a lot of

tears during these thirty nine years that he served the Lord over the brokenness and

the idolatry that he saw on a regular basis. As he called the people

to repent. The Book of Jeremiah is then God's pronouncement of impending judgment and

the fulfillment of it on Judah for their worship of other gods. It is

both a warning and an encouragement. We'll see that in our text today,

specifically in just these two verses. There's so much in these two verses.

I'm eager to share it with you because God has been using it in my

own life over the last several months, as I've sought to answer the call

of planting a church and feeling like I don't fit the mold I shared with

you back in twenty twenty when I was here, church planting wasn't even on

my mind. I just didn't feel like or even see that I fit the

pastor type, if there is a type. But in my mind I thought

there was, And so I've I've come into this journey of planning a church

feeling very weak, and because of that, because of my own fears,

the fears of my heart, fear of man, fear of failure, I've

found myself in instances where I'm trying to measure up, to prove that I'm

I'm I'm worth being a pastor to make it on my own to prove that

I can be successful in this role. And God has brought me back to

this passage over and over and over, even even this morning, and I

pray that it will be both a warning and encouragement to you this morning as

well. But as you leave today, if there if you can take away

one thing, I want you to take away this one point. Only only

the pursuit of knowing God results in eternal satisfaction. We're going to see that

in our text today, that only the pursuit of knowing God results in eternal

satisfaction. So let's read the passage this morning. Jeremiah nine twenty three through

twenty four. 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 boast boast in

this that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast

love, justice, righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,

declares the Lord. This is the word of God for God's people.

And we see in the verse and very first verse, verse twenty three that

we are called, and the people of Judah were called to abandon self made

idols. This is what they were doing. They would spend their time worshiping

self made idols. They were crafting with their own hands out of wood,

metal, or stone, these images and statues of bail, another god that

couldn't do anything for them. But because they had allowed the cultures and the

pressures of the world around them to set in on them and to take hold

of their hearts, they turned to these other gods to worship them instead of

the One True God who called them his own. But you see, it

wasn't just about these images that they were creating. It wasn't so much.

The issue was not so much about these statues that they were making with their

own hands. We don't see him calling that out. What we see God

saying is, don't boast in your wisdom, don't boast in your might,

don't boast in your riches. You see, these are the things that our

hearts are drawn to. This is what God was revealing to them, that

he wanted their heart, and that their hearts had gone wayward. We see

in verse or chapter two, verse nineteen, this indictment against the people of

Judah. He says, you've lost the fear of the Lord. When we

lose the fear of the Lord, it means our hearts are drawn towards something

else other than seeking after God. And so we see God calling them out

on these things. But it's not really necessarily calling out. It's a warning,

a loving warning. And this isn't God saying coming down on them,

saying they're being disobedient and commanding them to follow after him him. Think about

if you know somebody who's headed towards disaster, somebody you know what motivates you

to warn them? Your love for them, your love for them. That's

what God is doing here for the people of Judah. Even though he knows

what's going to happen, he knows where their hearts are going to land,

what they're going to continue pursuing, He still lovingly warns them. 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. These are

the three things that we seem to all be drawn towards. Whether it's one

or another, or a mix of all three, or all three. When

we boil it down. These are the things are hearts desire. We want

to find success in these things. We want to be able to say,

look at me over these things, and God's lovingly warning them to not chase

after those things. Our culture in this world tells us to idolize fame,

to idolize ourselves, idolize wealth, family or accomplishment, even our abilities,

even our religion. We can get caught up in idolizing these things, and

they become things that we worship subtly, very subtly. You see, we

all know the guy that that comes up and he's constantly talking about his academic

achievements, or the one who is subtly bringing up in almost every conversation their

investment portfolio, or the one who is always posting on social media their workout

photos. Hopefully that doesn't hit too close to home, or maybe it should.

See those are all blatantly obvious, right, we can see those things.

And when we think about boasting, we think about someone who who who's

bragging, Right, they're bragging on somebody. Nobody likes that guy or gal.

But we do this in subtle, more subtle ways, where it's just

the quiet thoughts in our mind, right, that's where our that's where our

heart is revealing its deceit and its wickedness is in the quiet thoughts of our

mind when nobody else knows. You see. For me, it's been church

planting or even preaching a message where I feel weak in this thing I got

called me to and I'm like, Okay, I gotta measure up somehow,

I gotta I gotta prove my worth. I was broken this week, even

this morning, as I was preparing to preach a message about being an awe

of God rather than the awe of self, and I had these thoughts of

boy, I hope they think a lot of my wisdom as I share this

word with them. It's sickening. And now nobody's going to come up and

tell me that I did a good job. Now reget that. But I

was broken over this because even as I'm preparing to share God's word, I

could see the wickedness that resided in my own heart and nobody would ever know

unless I revealed it to you. But this is what we deal with every

day. So your idol may not be blatantly obvious to anybody around you,

and you might think that you're doing well, but really inside, you know,

you feel that emptiness, that dissatisfaction. I've felt it as as most

recently as this morning. You see, self made idols are built up in

our own minds. That's where our heart is. That's what where our heart

is, revealing itself and the thoughts of our mind. And God lovingly warns

us to not boast in these things. And this is the warning that he

gives. But then I remember, I said, there's also an increase cocouragement

and encouragement in this, because if we are to know God, we see

it here in verse twenty four, what we should do if we are to

boast in anything. We actually he actually gives us permission to boast in something.

He says in verse twenty four, boasts 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.

The second thing, if we're going to find eternal satisfaction in knowing God,

we have to pursue intimate fellowship with Him. Right first, we must

abandon ourself made idols and then pursue intimate fellowship with Him understanding and knowing God.

This is what he says. Boast in this, and this carries a

weight of not just a head knowledge of knowing facts about Him, but more

of an intimacy with God, knowing him personally. Someone came up to me

after the first service and said it it's like being an expert on God.

Fully knowing God, as he fully knows us right. He knows our thoughts,

he knows the intentions of our heart. He knows us inside and out.

He's the one who's created us and designed us. He's given us a

purpose, and that purpose is not to chase after the things of this world,

to not boast in those things that we feel will bring us success or

contentment or satisfaction or secure purity, but to boast in just simply knowing Him.

He says, don't strive after these things anymore. It's exhausting, is

it not? Would you agree it's exhausting, But he says, boast in

me. Rest in the fact that you know the God who's created all things,

who's created you, who knows you and yet still loves you. So

he calls us to know him. It's encouraging because, first of all,

this fact that we can actually know God is amazing, right, But we're

in danger of something, and it's brought to light throughout this book in Jeremiah

that the people of Judah lost the all of God. See, that's what

the fear of the Lord is, when we lose the awe of God.

They had been eight hundred and fifty years removed from the mighty acts of God

drawing them out, redeeming them out of slavery in Egypt, and then providing

them for them throughout the wilderness and bringing them into the Promised Land. Eight

hundred and fifty years removed. I don't know about you, but that's a

lot of generations that took place during that amount of time and are somewhere along

the way they forgot who God is. They forgot how amazing he is,

how awesome he is, and they lost sight of the awe of God.

Whether it was by them just forgetting or by the people forgetting to tell the

next generation. Somewhere along the line, they lost sight of the awe of

God. And we're in the same danger because as much as we've come to

faith in Jesus, we're two thousand years removed from Jesus dying on the cross

for our sin and rising again from the dead, bringing us victory over sin

and death. It's a gracious gift that we do not deserve. It's been

given freely. And while we haven't lived two thousand years to forget over that

amount of time, these people had not lived eight hundred and fifty years to

forget in that amount of time. They forgot in their lifetime, just as

we can forget in our lifetime what God has done, the mighty acts of

God. They forgot who he was, and they lost sight of the awe

of God. The power of the glory, the majesty of God, the

fear of God was not in them. You see, I'm want to ask

you this morning, have you lost sight of the awe of God. It

doesn't take forty years, it doesn't take ten years. It can take a

moment to lose sight of the awe of God. It's what I experienced even

this morning, as I'm preparing and spending time with the Lord in his word,

and even in that moment, one singular moment, my heart can turn

towards the awe of self, because really that's what our hearts prefer, the

awe of self. While the Israelites made images, aided images and statues for

them to focus their worship on. Remember, it wasn't about those images,

it was about their hearts. And we prefer really to make gods in our

own image rather than worship the One True God. Well, let's look at

what the One True God says about himself. He says he wants us to

understand and know him. What does he want us to understand and know that?

He is the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the

earth. He is the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in

the earth. We don't deserve this God because if we're honest, we don't

really believe that there is a God who is steadfast in love, that there's

a God who is just in every way, shows no partiality. Is he

is equal to all people in the way that he interacts. We don't want

to believe that there's a God who's righteous, who does what is right no

matter what, all the time. Because really, when we make images for

God's and our own image, we make gods who are who show unconditional love

or show conditional love, Gods who want love from others or will only show

love to others when we receive something. This happens quite often within our own

relationships, right even in our own homes, our own households. We create

gods in our own image that are in just I'll treat them a little differently

because they have a little better background and their sin isn't as bad as this

person's. We create gods after our own image that are unrighteous that I'll only

do what I need to do, whether it's right or wrong, as long

as it benefits me. These are the gods that we create. And so

it's hard for us to even imagine a God who is steadfast in love,

just and righteousness because we've never seen it with our own eyes. By God's

grace, we have opportunity to know it and to know fully his steadfast love,

justice, and righteousness through Jesus. You see, when we come to

know God fully intimately, we are in fellowship with him. Being in his

word, we find that Jesus is the fulfillment of this steadfast love, justice,

and righteousness. If you would take a moment and turn with me to

First Corinthians one, we're gonna look at a few verses there that are a

mirror image of these verses we're looking at and Jeremiah. First Corinthians one will

start in verse twenty six. You see, God wanted us to understand.

He wanted his people in Judah to understand something about who he is, who

he was for then, and who he is for us today. And we

find we find him revealing that even more clearly for us in this passage in

First Corinthians twenty six. First Corinthians one, verse twenty six, it says,

for consider your calling, brothers Paul's writing to the church in Corinth,

the saints in Corinth. Not many of you were wise according to the worldly

standards. This is the wisdom that we see in Jeremiah. Not many of

you were powerful. This is the strength, the might that God was speaking

to Judah about. Not many of you were of noble birth. This is

the richest, the wealth social status that God was saying. Don't boast in

not Verse twenty seven says, but God chose what is foolish in the world

to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame

the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even

things that are not to bring to nothing, things that are, and why

so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. See,

one day all of us will stand before God. We will be in his

presence. And if you've tried to buy your way into his presence, it

won't work. If you've tried to muscle your way into his presence, you'll

fall short. If you try to outsmart God, you'll end up looking like

a fool. In verse thirty, it says no man, no human being,

might might boast in the presence of God because this because of him God,

you are in Christ, Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God,

righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that, as it has written,

let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. You see how this reflects

the passage in Jeremiah. You can flip back to that. You see,

Jesus is the fulfillment of God's steadfast love, his justice, and his righteousness

all at the same time because of what he did on the cross. You

see, we're not willing to do what is right every time, because it

means we have to sacrifice. Jesus did what was right, what was needed,

and was willing to sacrifice his own son. He is righteous. God

did what was just by bringing upon Jesus the wrath of God on behalf of

all of our sin. In that moment, while Jesus hung on across,

he bore the weight of all of our sin. Because of payment was necessary.

Someone needed to pay for the sin of the world. We can't do

it ourselves because we can't claim that we are spotless, blameless, sinless.

Only Jesus can claim that. And it's because of God's steadfast love for us.

He saw the need. He saw our need first savior. He saw

that we couldn't save ourselves. We can't think our way into Heaven. We

can't buy our way into His presence. We can't muscle our way in.

It is only through Jesus. This is why it says in that passage in

First Corinthians that he became wisdom to us. Jesus is the fulfillment of God's

steadfast love, justice, and righteousness. We can praise him for that the

men he makes himself known. God makes himself known through his written word and

through the living word of Jesus. This is what we have to know who

God is. And he says, come be an intimate fellowship with me fully

know me as I fully know you. There's another thing here in this passage

in Jeremiah nine twenty four, at the very end, it says, for

in these things I delight, declares the Lord. See. God delights insteadfast

love. He delights injustice and righteousness, because he delights in his Son,

who is the fulfillment of those free things. For us, God delights in

these things. And if we have placed our believing faith in Jesus for the

forgiveness of our sin, then we should be delighting in these three things as

well. As much as we try to create our image our God's in our

own image of conditional love, injustice and unrighteousness, we see it running rampant

throughout the world and sometimes even in our own church. As much as we

try to do that, we still have the ability to stand with Christ and

delight in steadfast love, to extend it to others, to be the reflection

of Jesus, the fulfillment of God's steadfast love, justice and righteousness. It's

only through Jesus. It's only through Jesus that we can know him, and

it's only through Jesus that we can make God known. We don't have any

power of ourselves to be able to do that. Residing in intimate fellowship with

God brings eternal satisfaction because when we come to know and understand steadfast love,

we find Jesus. Jesus himself said in John seventeen three, this is eternal

life. That they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,

whom you have sent you see. Knowing God intimately brings the eternal satisfaction

because it provides eternal life. Because when we know God fully we find Jesus.

Then when we know Jesus, now we've received eternal life through the forgiveness

of our sins because he paid for it on the cross. He died,

and then he rose again, and he's waiting for that day when we will

see him face to face all who have placed their faith in him. I

encourage you to do that today, But I also understand how difficult it is

to live in this way. I understand that it's far easier for me to

preach this message to you than it is to live it out. Even as

I've wrestled with this message, this passage as God has used it in my

life over the last several months six months or so, that He keeps bringing

this passage back to me over and over again, revealing that it's not about

my own strength, it's not about my own wisdom. It's not about my

wealth or social status. That's not what's going to plant a church. It's

knowing Him and making him known that will plant a church in Magnolia, Texas.

So I understand that it's difficult. I understand that it's hard, but

it is possible. When we submit our lives to God, we come under

the awe of Him, the fear of the Lord. Just as he was

calling the people of Judah to do that, Jeremiah was constantly repeating this message

over and over. Fear the Lord, be in awe of him. Remember

his awesome acts on your behalf. I encourage you this morning, remember what

God has done for you. Encourage one another to remember what God has done

for you, and delight in these things, Delight in who He is,

because only the pursuit of knowing God results in eternal satisfaction. Life is uncertain,

the world is broken, it's unsafe, it's scary, and because of

that, we're drawn to seek refuge in the things that we can control.

It's understandable. I get it. I've done it myself. I can't control

certain things, so I'll run to what I can. Things are unsafe and

scary out there, so let me gather to me what I can so that

I don't have to experience hurt or brokenness. But God calls us to lay

those things down to encourage one another. And I was reminded of this as

I was preparing of this just this past weekend of Maui. What's happened in

Maui, the destruction and devastation that took place in a moment. You see,

we can we can set up and build our kingdoms and think that it's

safe that we're in control, but at a moment's notice, it can all

be gone, because really we have no control. Only God has control of

all things. And so when we build our satisfaction on things of this world,

we're going to be left feeling empty at some point. It's coming.

And just as those people we're running through the streets warning people to wake up

and get out of their homes and get out of the city, this is

God's warning to us this morning. If we're building and creating our own self

made idols, run from them, run to the Lord. Be in awe

of Him, abandon yourself made idols, and pursue intimate fellowship with the One

True God. It is only the pursuit of knowing God, results and eternal

satisfaction where we will one day be fully satisfied in Him in his presence,

we look forward to that day.