Wisdom of God vs Wisdom of Men

For those of you who are visiting, my name is Sean, and I'm one of the pastors of Trinity

Cambridge Church.

I have the privilege of preaching from God's Word on most Sundays, and I do follow the

text pretty closely.

So if you don't have a Bible in your hands now, I do encourage you to grab one and follow

along with me.

It was Socrates, I think, that once said, the only true wisdom is in knowing you know

nothing.

And similarly, Leo Tolstoy said, we can know only that we know nothing, and that is the

highest degree of human wisdom.

Many wise people throughout the ages seem to have come to that conclusion that the more

we know, the more we grasp the vastness of our ignorance.

And 1 Corinthians 3, 18 to 19 take this one step further.

It says,

Let no one deceive himself.

If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he

may become wise.

For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.

In this passage that we're looking at, Jeremiah 8, 4 to 10, 25, we see God's people seeking

wisdom in all the wrong places.

And they, in error, think that they are very wise because of the wisdom of men that they

have obtained.

And Jeremiah tells them, and this is the main point of this passage, that we should seek

the wisdom of God rather than the wisdom of men.

And that's what he tells them to do.

First, we're going to talk about the wisdom of lying men, and then we'll talk about the

wisdom of idolatrous men.

And then thirdly, we'll talk about the wisdom of the true God.

Verses 4 to 5 of chapter 8, it says this,

It's a very sharp and pointed accusation here because when you're walking along the road,

let's say out on Cambridge Street here, and you trip and fall, right, you will naturally

pick yourself back up from the ground and start walking again.

In the same way, if you're driving around the streets and you take a wrong turn, you

naturally turn yourself around and get back on the right road.

That's the natural course of things.

You don't keep going in the wrong direction, yet this is exactly what God's people were

not doing.

They were refusing to return.

They were turning away in perpetual backsliding, even though they see that their ways are not

working, even though they see that it is wrong, it is in error.

They keep doing it, repeating the same sins over and over again.

And this stubborn refusal to repent and to return to God looks even more ridiculous when

you compare it to the natural course of creation.

Look at verses 6 to 7 of chapter 8.

I've paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly.

No man relents of his evil, saying, What have I done?

Everyone turns to his own course like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

Even the stork in the heavens know her times.

And the turtle dove swallow and crane keep the time of their coming.

But my people know not the rules of the Lord.

Even the birds of the air know their times and when to migrate according to their God-given

intuitive sense of the seasons.

But God's people knew not the rules of the Lord.

They were instead like these horses plunging headlong into battle who seemed to care not that

these swords and these arrows are coming their way.

And in spite of the plain foolishness of their refusal to repent, God's people are under the

delusion that they are wise.

God says to them in verses 8 to 9,

How can you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us?

But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.

The wise men shall be put to shame.

They shall be dismayed and taken.

Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord.

So what wisdom is in them?

Even though they had rejected the word of the Lord by their disobedience,

they wrongly believed that just because the law of the Lord was in their possession,

that they were wise.

But having a book on a shelf, of course, doesn't mean that you have read it and applied its contents

to your life.

The same way, the people who have having the law of God means nothing if they are not

applying it and living by the word.

And so this is the first kind of wisdom we see in these chapters.

And these men style themselves as being wise.

It's the wisdom of lying men who pay lip service to the law of God without actually listening to it.

Therefore, God announces his punishment in verses 10 to 12.

And verse 11, it says,

From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

They have healed the wound of my people, lightly saying,

Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

Instead of warning sinful people of impending judgment,

these prophets and priests assure them with false security.

Instead of preaching a message of repentance,

they were preaching a message of complacency.

Minimizing people's sins and healing their wounds lightly.

And we often deceive ourselves in the same way.

We rationalize our sins.

We minimize our sins.

We deny our sins altogether.

We say,

Oh, that's not really a sin.

Even if it is,

it's a really small one.

A minor one that I don't really need to worry about.

It's so much better than that person's sin.

Yeah, maybe I shouldn't do that.

But look around.

Everybody does it.

It can't be so bad.

By minimizing the sins of God's people

and diverting their attention from God's imminent judgment,

these so-called prophets and priests were dealing falsely with them

and turning the very word of the Lord into a lie.

In what ways are we at risk of turning the word of the Lord into a lie?

Is your life defined by the word of God?

Is it shaped by the word of God?

2 Timothy 3.15

It says that the sacred scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation

through faith in Christ Jesus.

Do you cherish this word as the unique writing

that can make us wise unto salvation?

Or is the word of God an afterthought,

a footnote to your life,

which is defined primarily by the trends and ideas and habits

of the surrounding world?

Do you submit yourself to the word of God

or do you subject the word to your own will?

Does the word ever contradict or challenge you?

Or does it always seem to echo whatever you think and feel at the time?

Because if that's the case,

then you're probably not submitting to the word,

but instead conforming it to your own will.

We need to make sure that we're not passing off the wisdom of lying men

as the wisdom of God by passing,

you know, by paying lift service to God

without really listening to him.

So from chapter 8, verse 13, to chapter 9, verse 6,

there's a kind of a back and forth between God's speech

and Judah's speech and Jeremiah's speech and so on.

And it's not always clear who the speaker is,

so we have to pay attention to the context

to determine who's speaking.

And so in verse 13,

it's God speaking again,

says, declares the Lord.

He's once again comparing Judah to a vine that he planted,

but he notes that there are no grapes in the vine

when he comes to pick the grapes to enjoy.

And then in verses 14 to 15,

we see Judah's desperate response to God's judgment.

And then God announces in verses 16 to 17

that the invaders of the north are now at hand.

They've come upon them.

Up to this point in the book of Jeremiah,

Jeremiah has been calling people to repentance

in order to avoid God's judgment,

so that God's judgment might be averted.

But now judgment has come.

So we're entering into a different phase of the book.

And in chapter 8, verses 18 to 19,

Jeremiah begins his own lament and mourning.

He says,

My joy is gone.

Grief is upon me.

My heart is sick with me.

Behold the cry of the daughter of my people

from the length and breadth of the land.

Is the Lord not in Zion?

Is her king not in her?

Then the Lord replies,

Why have they provoked me to anger

with their carved images

and with their foreign idols?

It's an interesting dialogue.

The people of Judah are asking among themselves,

Is God really with us as he promised he would be?

If that's the case,

then why are all these bad things happening to us?

And then God's answer is,

If you really say that I am your God,

then what are all these idols that I see in your land?

Because they have not been faithful to him.

And then they utter this hopeless saying,

The harvest is past.

The summer is ended.

And we are not saved.

In Israel, the wheat harvest lasted from April to June.

And when the wheat harvest failed,

they had to put their hope in the summer fruits,

like figs and olives and grapes,

to sustain them.

But if the summer fruits also failed,

then that would mean that they would probably starve.

They would have famine in their hands.

And that's why this expression became a popular way

of describing a dire situation,

a hopeless situation.

The harvest is past.

The summer is ended.

And we are not saved.

So they're saying, in essence,

there's no sight of deliverance from God's judgment.

And seeing this hopeless situation,

Jeremiah pours out his heartfelt lament.

He says,

For the wound of the daughter of my people

is my heart wounded.

I mourn.

And dismay has taken hold on me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of the daughter of my people

not been restored?

He calls God's people my daughter.

He says,

My daughter of the daughter of my people.

Grammatically,

he's probably referring to the daughter that is my people.

He's calling God's people his daughter.

That's how intimately he relates to them

and feels for them.

And then we see an interesting paradox of emotions

from Jeremiah.

Look at chapter 9, verse 1.

First, in chapter 9, verse 1,

he mourns the suffering of his people.

He says,

Oh, that my head were waters

and my eyes a fountain of tears

that I might weep day and night

for the slain of the daughter of my people.

He's mourning the suffering of his people.

But then in chapter 9, verse 2,

he mourns the sins of his people

that brought about their suffering.

He says,

Oh, that I had in the desert

a traveler's lodging place

that I might leave my people

and go away from them

for they are all adulterers,

a company of treacherous men.

It's difficult for Jeremiah to stand

both the destruction

and the degradation of Jerusalem

and the people of Judah.

So he wishes that he could withdraw

to a lodge in the wilderness

away from the sin and suffering of the people.

And this is helpful.

It's instructive to us

because it's important to recognize

that a healthy prophetic ministry,

when we're trying to speak into people's lives

in a prophetic way,

that we need to have both of these responses

that we're seeing in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah has both, on the one hand,

a zeal for God's holiness.

And on the other hand,

he has a love for God's people.

He mourns Judah's suffering

even while he is pronouncing

God's judgment over them.

So sometimes we can wrongly, you know,

kind of enjoy and relish

these prophetic confrontations.

You know, whether it's a Christian journalist

who specializes in publishing

church scandals and conflicts,

or whether it's a Bible-thumping pastor

who preaches fire and brimstone

without grace and mercy,

or maybe a simply a self-righteous church member

who is in the habit of confronting

other members about their sins and errors

without first examining his own heart.

All of these instances,

people are loving to point out

sins and failures to people

without loving the people themselves.

They denounce the sins of God's people

with glee rather than grief.

Their so-called prophetic ministry

stems not from love,

but from their own insecurities,

and it's a way of lifting themselves up

and putting others down

rather than building others up.

A true prophet of the Lord

must be filled with both

a passion for God's glory

and a compassion for God's people.

It's a little sudden,

but then God interjects at this point

with his own assessment

of the evils of his people in verse 3.

It says,

the fact that God's speech begins here

is indicated by the phrase

declares the Lord again

at the end of the verse,

and he says,

and he refers to himself

in the first person

that they do not know me.

And verses 3 to 4

and verses 5 to 6

are mirror images of each other.

They kind of form

a coherent poetic unit.

And so verse 3

speaks of how people speak falsehood

and proceed from evil to evil

and do not know the Lord.

And that parallels verse 6,

which speaks of how the people

heap oppression upon oppression

and deceit upon deceit

and refuse to know the Lord.

And likewise,

verse 4,

which speaks of how

no one should trust his neighbor.

And then it parallels verse 5,

which speaks of how

everyone deceives his neighbor.

So throughout this entire section,

there's been this focus

on sins of deception, right?

Lying about God

and lying to one another.

And this passage,

this unit here,

tells us what that stems from.

That deceptive tongue

comes from not knowing God.

Look at Numbers 23, 19.

It says,

God is not man that he should lie

or is not man that he should

change his mind.

Has he said

and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken

and will he not fulfill it?

One of the things

that separate God

from man

is that he never lies

and always fulfills his promises.

So not surprisingly then,

for people who do not know

the God who cannot lie,

people who do not know

the God whose word is truth,

their speech

deteriorate into falsehood.

And earlier in chapter 8,

verse 8,

God spoke of the lying pen

of the scribes

that are turning,

making the law of the Lord

into a lie.

And these so-called wise ones

were twisting and manipulating

God's word to their liking, right?

And that's what naturally happens.

If you don't take God

at his word,

we're going to turn

to other sources

and really the only other alternative

is the wisdom of lying men.

If we're not shaped

by God's word,

we will shape the realities

and bend the truth

according to man's wisdom,

according to our own will.

If we do not know the Lord,

if we're not committed

to his commandments

and his will,

then we're going to lie

to one another

because our ultimate allegiance

is not to God

but to ourselves.

And when we're seeking

to advance our own agendas,

when we're seeking

to make ourselves look good,

then there's no more powerful weapon

than the tongue.

So chapter 9,

verse 8 says,

Their tongue is a deadly arrow.

It speaks deceitfully.

With its mouth,

each speaks peace to his neighbor,

but in his heart,

he plans an ambush for him.

These are military terms

that vividly portray

the dangers of the tongue.

And rarely do Christians,

you know,

our Christians,

at least I've seen,

guilty of straight-up libel, right?

Saying something maliciously

and intentionally bad

about somebody

that's made up and false.

More often,

I think,

we are tempted

to twist people's words, right?

How often have you

read articles or emails

or heard people say things

that include these hasty

and rash conclusions

and judgments

about what other people are saying

that does not give them

a fair hearing?

It's a subtle way

of acting like

we're engaging in fair debate

but whilst actually damaging

that person's reputation

and credibility

by twisting their words

and attributing things

to them

that they didn't really say.

It's a way of speaking peace

but planning an ambush, right?

This might help us

win arguments

but it's a form of hatred

of our neighbors.

Lying can also take the form

of gossip and slander.

How often do we baptize

gossip and slander

with Christian lingo?

By prefacing it

with an expression

of reluctance.

I've known this

for a long time

but I've held it

to myself all along.

Or by couching it

in terms of our own struggles.

I've really been struggling

with so and so.

Would you please

give me some counsel?

Or by sugarcoating it.

Sugarcoating the slander

by appending a trumpet

of praise at the end.

Even though I've said

all these bad things

about this person,

she's really a great person

after all.

It's all gossip and slander

with different masks.

It's a way of speaking peace

but planning an ambush.

And even if the gossiper

or a slanderer

is telling what he or she

believes to be true,

the context in which

it is presented

where only one sigh

is heard,

where the other person

is being picked apart

in minute detail

without a chance

to defend him or herself,

that context is deceitful

because by nature

the truth that is presented

will be partial.

And the people of Judah

were doing this and more.

They were bending

their tongue like a bow

because they did not

know the Lord.

And Jeremiah says,

every brother was a deceiver

and every neighbor

went about as a slanderer.

Everyone deceived

his neighbor

and no one spoke the truth.

They had taught their tongue

to speak lies,

heaping deceit

upon deceit.

That's the inevitable

consequence of not knowing God

and being held accountable

to him in our daily lives.

We will bend our tongues

like a bow

to conquer people

and control them.

That's the wisdom

of lying men.

And Jeremiah teaches us

that we should seek

the wisdom of God

rather than the wisdom

of man.

Then in chapter 9,

verse 12,

the theme of wisdom

comes up again.

It says,

Who is the man so wise

that he can understand this?

To whom has the mouth

of the Lord spoken

that he may declare it?

The false prophets

and priests claim to be wise,

but those who are truly wise

are those to whom

the mouth of the Lord

has spoken.

But there's none

to be found

in Jeremiah's time.

Only wisdom

that people of Judah have

is the wisdom

of idolatrous men,

and that's the second point.

And verse 14,

it says that the people

have stubbornly followed

their own hearts

and have gone

after the Baals.

That's the idolatry

is the focus

of this next section.

And after pronouncing

his judgments once again,

God says this

in verses 17 to 19.

Consider and call

for the mourning woman

to come,

sent for the skillful woman

to come.

Let them make haste

and raise a wailing over us

that our eyes

may run down with tears

and our eyelids

flow with water.

For a sound of wailing

is heard from Zion.

How we are ruined.

We are utterly

shamed because

we have left the land

because they have

cast down our dwellings.

The impending judgment

is so severe

that God calls

for the mourning woman.

That's a reference

to professional mourners

common in the Middle East

even today.

They are,

you know,

they have this signature

high shriek,

you know,

mourning

that they use

to follow behind

the funeral beers.

And their point,

their really purpose

is they're hired

to stir the emotions

of people

so that people

can express

the sadness

appropriately

according to

what has happened.

And these mourning women

are interestingly

described as

the skillful women.

And the word

skillful

is the same word

that's translated

throughout these chapters

as wise.

It's the same word.

So it's ironic

that the priests

and prophets,

these men

that God has appointed

to lead,

they're all false

and they're lying

and they claim

to be wise

and they're not wise.

In fact,

the only ones

that are wise

in this nation

are these mourning women.

They're the only ones

that know the truth

because they're mourning

and that's what

these people

should be doing

because God's judgment

is at hand.

And so God instructs

these women further

in verse 20,

Hear, O woman,

the word of the Lord

and let your ear

receive the word

of his mouth.

Teach to your daughters

a lament

and each to her neighbor

a dirge.

Right?

Those who are wise

are those to whom

the mouth of the Lord

has spoken

and God says to the woman

here,

Let your ear receive

the word of his mouth

what Jeremiah says

to God

about God.

So those who have,

these are the women,

it's not those

who are married in Judah

who are wise,

who have heard from the Lord,

but it's those

who are mourning in Judah

that are wise.

This is a helpful,

there's a helpful parallel

in Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 7:4

chapter 7 verse 4.

It says,

The heart of the wise

is in the house of mourning,

but the heart of fools

is in the house of mirth.

The fool lives

like he will never die

and make decisions

for the here and now

without thinking about death

and the afterlife.

The fool is always merry

and enjoying life

without paying heed

to the brokenness

of this world

and the sorrows

and sufferings of humanity.

But the wise person

on the other hand

lives knowing

that he will one day die

and makes provisions

not only for the here and now

but also for his death

and afterlife.

The wise one

does not go from

entertainment

to entertainment,

diversion to diversion,

vacation to vacation,

trying to escape

the sad realities of life.

They pay attention

to the sorrows

and sufferings

of humanity

and work to heal

the brokenness

of this world.

Do you mourn

the sins

and sufferings

in your own lives

and the lives

of those around you?

Do you mourn

the judgment

that faces

humanity

because of their sins

against God?

There's no wisdom

apart from recognizing

these realities.

The repeated descriptions

of Judah's sins

and God's judgments

in Jeremiah

are here in Scripture

not to depress you

but to make you wise,

wise unto salvation.

It's an aspect

of the wisdom of God.

In verse 21,

God gives the reason

why these women

ought to mourn.

He says,

For death has come up

into our windows.

It has entered

our palaces,

cutting off the children

from the streets

and the young men

from the squares.

This is an unusual

personification of death

and it may be

an allusion

to a Canaanite myth

that was known

to the people of Judah.

According to

Canaanite mythology,

Baal is kind of

the supreme god

in their pantheon

and he defeated

the god of chaos

and the sea,

Yam,

and after defeating Yam,

he became a king

and built for himself

this grand palace.

And as his architect

was building the palace,

the architect suggested to him,

You should put a window

in your palace.

And Baal says,

No, I'm not going to

put a window

in case these enemy gods

see through

and see what's inside.

But then later,

without any more prompting

from the architect,

he reverts back to it

and says,

Okay, yeah,

let's put a window.

That sounds like a good idea.

He puts a window

on the palace

and sure enough,

right afterward,

the god of death,

Mot,

whose name in Hebrew,

Mot,

also is the Hebrew word

for death,

invades

and he kills Baal.

And he's left for dead

in the fields.

And that's,

this may be an allusion to that.

It's a satirical remark

on the story

because it says,

For death has come up

into our windows.

It has entered our palaces,

cutting off the children

from the streets

and the young men

from the squares.

God's saying,

basically,

the Baal you worship

is powerless to save you.

Even in your own stories,

Baal can't save himself.

Death will come up

into your windows

and palaces.

And verse 22,

the dead bodies of men

shall fall like dung

upon the open field,

like sheaves after the reaper

and none shall gather them.

The wisdom of idolatrous men

will prove unreliable.

Then after a brief statement

on the nature of true wisdom

in verses 23-26,

which I will return to later,

God continues to denounce

the idolatry of his people

in chapter 10,

verses 1-16.

First, he mocks their idols

in verses 2-5.

Learn not the way

of the nations,

nor be dismayed

at the signs of the heavens,

because the nations

are dismayed at them.

For the customs

of the peoples

are vanity.

A tree from the forest

is cut down

and worked with an axe

by the hands

of a craftsman.

They decorate it

with silver and gold.

They fasten it

with hammer and nails

so that it cannot move.

Their idols are like

scarecrows

in a cucumber field

and they cannot speak.

They have to be carried

for they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them,

for they cannot do evil,

neither is it in them

to do good.

It's absurd to worship

an idol

that we have created

with our own hands.

An idol that can't do

anything for itself

that we have to carry around

and fasten up on the walls.

Even the birds

quickly figure out

that motionless scarecrows

can't do anything to them.

They're pretty ineffective.

The scarecrows just still

and doesn't do anything.

So why should we fear

these idols

that can do neither good

nor evil?

Then in verses 6-10,

Jeremiah contrasts

these idols

with the Lord God.

He says,

There is none like you,

O Lord.

You are great

and your name

is great in might.

Who would not fear you,

O king of the nations?

For this is your due.

For among all the wise ones

of the nations

and in all their kingdoms

there is none like you.

They are both stupid

and foolish.

The instruction of idols

is but wood.

Beaten silver

is brought from Tarshish

and gold from Uphaz.

They are the works

of the craftsmen

and the hands

of the goldsmith.

Their clothing

is violet and purple.

They are all the work

of skilled men.

But the Lord

is the true God.

He is the living God

and the everlasting king.

At his wrath

the earth shakes

and the nations

cannot endure

his indignation.

He continues

in verses 11-12,

The gods who did not

make the heavens

and the earth

shall perish from the earth

and from under the heavens.

It is he who made

the earth by his power

who established the world

by his wisdom

and by his understanding

stretched out the heavens.

Once again,

I hope you're catching

following the theme

of wisdom

continuing in this passage.

The people who

lead the worship of idols

are called

the wise ones

of the nations.

And these idols

are described

as the work

of skilled men.

Once again,

same word,

the wise men.

But no matter

how creative

and beautiful

their craftsmanship,

the products

they produce

are just wood,

silver,

and gold,

inanimate objects.

So Jeremiah says

that these idols

that they worship

and the people

who worship them

are both stupid

and foolish.

The idols are false,

they are dead,

and they are temporary.

But Jeremiah says

the Lord is the true God,

the living God,

and the everlasting King,

and it's he alone

who established the earth,

established the world

by his wisdom.

There's no wisdom

to be found

in the idolatries

of the nation,

so don't be dismayed

by them,

God is saying.

Only the Lord

is the source

of true wisdom.

The power,

wisdom,

and understanding

of the Lord

stands in stark contrast

to the powerlessness

and the foolishness

and ignorance

of the idols.

It's really easy

for us

at this point

to kind of brush

this aside

and as irrelevant,

you know,

these relics

of the primitive past

because we don't worship

idols nowadays,

in our days,

and we could think

that these people

really were foolish,

but in his book,

Counterfeit Gods,

Pastor Tim Keller

helpfully defines idols

in this way.

He says,

Is there something

in your life

that is more important

to you than God?

And I'm not talking

just theoretically here,

but functionally,

because of course,

most of us as Christians,

we would say,

God is the most important

person in my life.

He is the most important

thing in my life.

But really,

functionally,

experientially,

is He the most important

thing in your life?

Do your life's purposes

and priorities

have God at the center?

Or is something else

occupying that center?

Is there anything

in your life

besides God?

Should you lose it

today,

it would make you

devastated,

make your life

not worth living.

Return with me

to chapter 9,

verses 23 to 24.

Thus says the Lord,

Let not the wise man

boast in his wisdom,

let not the mighty man

boast in his might,

let not the rich man

boast in his riches,

but let him who boasts

boast in this,

that he understands

and knows me,

that I am the Lord

who practices

steadfast love,

justice,

and righteousness

in the earth.

For in these things

I delight,

declares the Lord.

The things that we boast in

other than God

all,

in some sense,

become our idols.

And so interesting,

right,

in our high school days,

right,

we had nerds,

the jocks,

and the preps,

right?

And apparently

when you become adults,

things don't change

very much

because here we say

the wise man

boasts in his wisdom,

the mighty man

boasts in his might,

the rich man

boasts in his riches,

the intellectuals

and academics,

the athletes,

the rich and the famous,

in so many ways,

these are still

the very same things

that people nowadays

aspire to

and idolize.

And there's so many

variations and degrees

of these idols.

Do you feel that life

is only worth living

if you have a certain

quality of life

and a set of pleasures

at your disposal?

That's the idolatry

of comfort and pleasure.

Do you feel that

life is only worth living

if I am loved

and respected

by so and so?

That's the idolatry

of man's work.

Do you feel that

life is only worth living

if I am highly efficient

and productive

in what I do?

That's the idolatry

of work.

Do you feel that

life is only worth living

if I am successful

and accomplished?

That's the idolatry

of achievement.

Do you feel that

life is only worth living

if I am wealthy

and own these nice things?

That's the idolatry

of money and materialism.

Do you feel that

life is only worth living

if your political cause

or your social cause

is making progress

and growing in power

and influence?

That's the idolatry

of ideology.

Do you feel that

life is only worth living

if you are loved

by the right person

or marry the right person?

That's the idolatry

of relationship.

And how are these idols

any different

from the handmade idols

of Judah?

These idols cannot save us.

These idols cannot

satisfy us.

They are false,

lifeless,

and fleeting.

But the Lord

is the true God.

He's the living God

and the everlasting

King.

True wisdom

is not found

in the idolatries

of men

but in God.

And that's why

Jeremiah tells us

that we should seek

the wisdom of God

rather than

the wisdom of men.

So at this point

if you're convinced

for the need

for God's wisdom

it raises the question

how do we find it?

That brings us

to the final point

of the sermon.

Wisdom of the true God.

In order to access

the wisdom of God

we must get to know God

as it's said

in 23 and 24

of chapter 9.

But what does it mean

to know God?

It's not

it's not necessarily

knowing about God

because Israel also had that.

Judah also had that.

But then look at

verse 23 of chapter 10

with me.

I know, O Lord

that the way of man

is not in himself

that it is not in man

who walks to direct his steps.

Correct me, O Lord

but in justice

not in your anger

lest you bring me

to nothing.

Pour out your wrath

on the nations

that know you not

and on the peoples

that call not on your name

for they have devoured

Jacob.

They have devoured him

and consumed him

and have laid waste

his habitation.

So here

at the end of chapter 10

Jeremiah is acknowledging

that man is not the master

of his own fate

but God is

and he affirms the hope

that though God

is disciplining his people

right now

through the judgment

of the invading nations

foreign nations

that there will come a day

when God will rescue

his people

and judge these nations

who know him not.

And it was a commonly held view

among God's people

in Judah

that it was the nations

not they

who truly deserve

God's judgment.

In fact the word nations

itself was kind of

it became a way

when God's people

distinguished themselves

and distanced themselves

from the rest of the nations.

They are the nations.

We are Israel.

We are Judah.

We are God's special possession.

But there's a problem.

It's true that the nations

did not know God

but it's also true

that Judah did not know God.

In chapter 8 verse 7

God declared

my people know not

the rules of the Lord.

And then in chapter 9

verse 3 and verse 6

God lamented that his people

refused to know him.

This is the heart of the problem.

As I've mentioned

throughout our series

in Jeremiah

knowing here

knowing God here

is not merely referring

to intellectual knowledge

but to a personal knowledge

to relational knowledge

to covenantal knowledge

because people of Judah

knew a lot of things

about God

but they were disloyal to him.

They were unfaithful to him

and in that sense

they did not know him.

That's why in chapter 9

verses 25 to 26

follow along with me.

Chapter 9 verses 25 to 26

God says this

The days are coming

when I will punish

all those

who are circumcised

merely in the flesh

Egypt, Judah, Edom

the sons of Ammon

Moab

and all who dwell

in the desert

who cut the corners

of their hair

for all these nations

are uncircumcised

and all the house

of Israel

are uncircumcised

in heart.

This is a remarkable statement

because God

is including Judah

God's including Israel

among the list

of these

uncircumcised nations.

And the reason for this

is that though they are

circumcised

in their flesh

that's inadequate

that's external

that's ritual

they are not conforming

to God in obedience

therefore they are not

circumcised in heart

which is what they

truly needed.

So in order to know God

you must know him

you must be circumcised

in heart

you must know him

in the way he revealed

himself to us

and that is this

in chapter 9 verse 24

God says

I am the Lord

who practices

steadfast love

justice

and righteousness

in the earth.

These are some of the

most central aspects

of God's character.

God practices

steadfast love

toward us.

God is loyal

to his people

even though we are

fickle and disloyal.

He practices

steadfast love

rather than

a love that changes

with every circumstance.

steadfast love

here

or elsewhere

translated

as loving kindness

this conveys the idea

of being magnanimous

and gracious

to someone

even when such love

is not deserved

or expected.

That's the idea

that's the word

Hebrew word

that's behind

the New Testament words

like grace

and mercy.

God is full of

steadfast love

toward us.

But God does not

merely practice

steadfast love

he also practices

justice.

The word justice

refers to God's

impartial

and perfect judgment.

God condemns

evildoers

and he acquits

the innocent.

He cannot be bribed

he cannot be

misled or fooled

he knows all things

and sees all things

and therefore

is uniquely

qualified to judge.

Judgment can only

be rendered by those

who have the proper

authority to do so

and God is that

ultimate authority

over all of creation.

He alone

practices

justice.

And lastly

God practices

righteousness.

This word is

related to the word

justice

and it's sometimes

translated that way

and righteousness

points to the reality

that God

defines

what is right.

God defines

what is just

and human beings

whom we call

righteous

or just

are those

that simply

uphold

God's

just standard.

It's only those

who are committed

to righteousness

that can execute

justice

and that's what

God does.

This is

who God

revealed himself

to us to be.

So if we know

these things about him

and get to know him

in this way

is that enough?

It's still not enough.

It's great to know

these

characteristics

of God.

Knowing and believing

these things

will make us

a good Jew

but it will not

make us

a good Christian.

These attributes

of God

are ultimately

revealed

and embodied

and fulfilled

in the coming

of God's Son

Jesus Christ.

And Paul

quotes

Jeremiah 9

23 to 24

and writes this

in 1 Corinthians

18 to 31.

Follow along

with me.

It's going to extend

the passage that I read.

For the word

of the cross

is folly

to those

who are perishing

but to us

who are being saved

it is the power

of God.

For it is written

I will destroy

the wisdom

of the wise

and the discernment

of the discerning

I will thwart.

Where is the one

who is wise?

Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater

of this age?

Has not God

made foolish

the wisdom

of the world?

For since

in the wisdom

of God

the world

did not know

God through wisdom

it pleased God

through the folly

of what we preached

to save those

who believe.

For Jews

demand signs

and Greeks

seek wisdom

but we preach

Christ crucified

a stumbling block

to Jews

and folly

to Gentiles

but to those

who are called

both Jews

and Greeks

Christ the power

of God

and the wisdom

of God.

For the foolishness

of God

is wiser

than men

and the weakness

of God

is stronger

than men

for consider

your calling

brothers

not many

of you

are wise

according to

worldly standards

not many

were powerful

not many

were of noble

birth

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

so that

no human

being

might boast

in the presence

of God

and because

of him

you are in

Christ Jesus

who became

to us

wisdom

from God

righteousness

and sanctification

and redemption

so that as it is

written

let the one

who boasts

boast

in the Lord

notice how

Jeremiah takes

the exact

I mean

Paul takes

the exact

categories

that Jeremiah

used

wise

let the wise

not boast

in their wisdom

let not the strong

boast in their strength

let not the rich

boast in their riches

he takes those

exact categories

and says

that

we were not

like that

that's not the reason

God saved us

God saved us

not on the basis

of our wisdom

our might

or our riches

but because of

his steadfast love

justice

and righteousness

God saves us

this way

to eliminate

human

boasting

altogether

and the way

of salvation

is through

Christ Jesus

who became

to us

wisdom

from God

righteousness

and sanctification

and redemption

this is how

Jesus reveals

those characteristics

of God

he reveals

and embodies

and fulfills

the steadfast

love of God

because

in spite of

decades

and centuries

even millennia

of persistent sin

and rebellion

against him

God never

abandoned his

commitment

to his people

and the expression

of his ongoing

commitment to him

is Lord Jesus

Christ

whom he sends

to save

and redeem them

his steadfast love

and grace

is revealed

in Jesus Christ

to us

Jesus reveals

the justice

of God

he's the one

to whom the

father has

entrusted all

judgment

he will separate

those who

humbly receive

him from those

who pridefully

reject him

and Jesus

judges humanity

in this way

and he will do

so with righteousness

Jesus reveals

the righteousness

of God

because he does

not brush

over our sins

he does not

sweep our sins

under the rug

but he deals

righteously

and justly

with sinners

because the

righteousness

of God

must be

upheld

and his wrath

against sinner

must be

meted out

Jesus

dies

on the cross

for our sins

he

absorbs

the punishment

he absorbs

the wrath

that we

deserved

and rises

again

so that he

might absolve

us

free us

redeem us

from sin

and death

in short

Jesus Christ

is the wisdom

of God

that we must

seek

and in order

to seek him

in order to

receive him

you must

forsake

all

wisdom

of man

this is a hard

message

because it

requires

that we

give up

all our

pretensions

and pride

this is a hard

message

because I

face that

temptation

every week

to tell

people

what they

want to

hear

people don't

like hearing

the gospel

it looks

foolish to

them

I know

that

yet we

do it

because

that's

the wisdom

of God

that makes

foolish

the wisdom

of man

because it

is the

only thing

because the

gospel is the

power of God

unto salvation

because as we

sang earlier

there is no

other name

under heaven

given to

mankind

by which

we must

be saved

except the

name of

Jesus

Christ

so let

me ask

you

is there

anything

that you

are boasting

in other

than Jesus

today

your power

your riches

your wisdom

your intelligence

your looks

is your

confidence

for salvation

in yourself

or your own

wisdom

your own

philosophical

system

your own

morality

or your

own good

works

or is it

in the

cross of

Jesus

Christ

let the

one who

boasts

boast

in the

Lord

let's reflect

on that

in silence

for a moment

and then we'll

respond to that

by praying

out loud

together

as the

body

and

door

into

the

noise

of

air

and

leads

to

songs