Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the passage we read, Jeremiah
chapter 6, and reading from our text, verse 16. Jeremiah chapter 6, and reading from our text, verse
16. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye
in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the
good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk
therein. Jeremiah chapter 6 verse 16 In Jeremiah's day, some 600 years
before Christ, and just before the time and his day came over
the time, that God sent Babylon to chastise his people for their
sin, to bring them captive for 70 years in Babylon. And Jeremiah,
on the one hand, was warning the people that this would come,
that their ways were idolatry and sin were evil ways but at
the same time there was other prophets and they were saying
peace, peace when there was no peace and so the people were
getting those mixed messages one message from Jeremiah another
message from others and what was more they were still carrying
out the sacrifices we read of in verse 20 there, to what purpose
cometh thee? To me incense from Sheba, sweet
cane from far country, your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
sacrifices sweet, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. They still had
a form of sacrifice, a form of religion and following the patterns
that were given them in the ceremonial law, but they were not walking
in the Lord's ways of holiness and fearing Him only, they joined
the Lord unto idols. And the people then were getting
these different messages. And so really our text is the
Lord's word that is direct to the people, inviting them, thus
saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways And see, ask for the old
paths, where is the good way and walk therein, ye shall find
rest for your souls. He addresses them directly. And
you know, we have this situation today, don't we? We have it where
there are many different ways that are set before those round
about us. One saying one thing, another
saying another thing. And the Lord would say to anyone
serious about their souls, anyone with a real concern, and you
say to them, stand ye in the ways and see. Try those ways
yourself. Test them. Don't go by the words
of the preachers. Don't go by my word. Go by the
word of God. It's a wonderful thing. that
we are blessed in this land with a faithful translation of the
Word of God in our language. We use the authorised King James
Version here, which we believe is the most accurate in the English
language. We want to hear the words of
God. We want to know what the Lord
has said. And we can take that word. We
can try what we hear by the Word of God. We do not have to go
through a second means. You do not have to go as it sends
to man. You can try man's word. If the Bereans tried the Apostle
Paul's word, whether these things were so by the Old Testament
Scriptures, how much more can we with the New Testament Scriptures,
believing that the Word of God is true from Genesis to Revelation,
the infallible, inerrant Word of God, that there's no other
revelation but this, There's no other extra revelation and
all that we hear and all that is talked may be tried by this
word of God. And so we are invited, we are
set the same message, stand in the ways and see. And especially
at such time as this, when we have the virus that is with us,
is not the Babylonian army as it were that is coming. but the
Lord has sent this now what was Israel saying and we've only
got to go back to the previous chapter and the Lord is having
a controversy with them, he tells them, he speaks to them of what
they are doing and they are saying in verse 12 of chapter 5 it is
not he neither shall evil come upon us neither shall we see
sword or famine and The Lord says the prophets they shall
become wind and the word is not in them thus shall it be done
unto them and then you find later on in verse 19 when things do
come when they come to pass it shall come to pass when you shall
say wherefore doth the Lord our God doeth the Lord our God all
these things unto us and the answer that is shall be given
them is then shalt thou answer them like as ye have forsaken
me and serve strange gods in your land so shall ye serve strangers
in a land that is not yours and the prophet had to declare this
to these people he says in verse 22 fear you not me saith the
Lord Will ye not tremble at my presence? But this people hath
a revolting and rebellious heart, they are revolted and gone, neither
say they in their heart, let us now fear our God, that giveth
rain, both the former and latter in his season, who reserveth
unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. And the Lord says,
your iniquities have turned away these things. Your sins are withholding
good things from you. Among my people are found wicked
men, wicked men, cage full of unclean births. And then the
Lord says in verse 29, chapter 5, Shall I not visit for these
things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged
on such a nation as this? And then in verse 31, the prophets
that are prophesying falsely, and the priests, and the people,
my people, solemn thing, my people, love to have it so. And what
will you do? In the end, they're off. The
Lord visited His people Israel. He didn't just turn a blind eye
to their sins. They were His national people,
a typical people, a special people, and the Lord chastened them and
corrected them. And the Lord has said this with
His spiritual Israel from every nation, kindred, and tongue,
that He also will chasten them, He will correct them, And the
Lord's blessing is that He gathers a people out of every nation,
kindred and tongue. And that these things that come
upon the nations, nations that have forgotten the Lord, turned
away from His law, who think that the God of heaven doesn't
regard the earth, doesn't take notice of it. They take His blessings,
but they never return to Him with thanks. They don't seek
wisdom from Him, not at a time like this, and they don't acknowledge
His good hand in healing and many mercies. And yet the Lord
told the parable of the prodigal son, and that son that had gone
out from his father's house, that it was in a time when the
land that he was in, that he was enjoying, all of the pleasures
and all of the things that he wanted to do in that land but
there came a famine and he came to be in want and all he was
doing was feeding the swine and we're told that he would have
eaten what they had to eat but no man gave him to eat and it
was in that condition that he began to think of his father's
house And it is a great mercy, a great blessing, if in times
like this, where the Lord visits with affliction, where He visits
with death in this form. And remember that the whole of
mankind, we are under the sentence of death. In the day that thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And whether you or I, die
because of this virus one day we shall die one day we shall
be done with earth and we must appear before our maker and the
Lord in mercy is good to use reminders that there is a God
and that in the way that he visits in this way that we are to stop
and consider all in the words of our text, to stand in the
ways and see, ask for the old paths where is the good way and
walk therein, you shall find rest for your souls. And it will
be a blessed thing if even one soul is blessed and saved in
this way. if one is brought into a real
concern for their eternal soul, and brought to seek the Lord
in the time that he may be found, and that his own people, who
have grown wanton, and because the iniquity shall abound, the
love of many has waxed cold, that they shall be stirred up
to a greater watchfulness and a cleaving and returning, to
the Lord their God. And so we have the warning that
is given here, the Lord giving warning to his people. He says
in verse 8 of chapter 6, Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest
my soul depart from thee. Be thou instructed, he says.
And then in verse 10, To whom shall I speak and give warning? that they may hear. To whom?
For this is the word, and I would desire with the Lord's help to
bring it before you this evening. And in the several parts that
the text naturally follows out in, there are three points. Firstly, we have what the Lord
directs to do. He directs to do these things,
stand in the ways, and see, and ask, and walk. Four things He directs to do. Then we have secondly, the Lord's
promise. He says, and you shall find rest
for your souls. And lastly, we have the people's
response. Their response was, we will not
walk therein. And most solemnly in verse 17
as well, when the watchmen sound the trumpet, the warning, they
said, we will not hearken. Solemn thing. But firstly, what
the Lord directs to do, these four points, firstly, It is stand
ye in the ways. Well what ways are these? You
know I was brought to consider this and think of this when walking
in the woods near us and there's been many many times that I've
walked those woods, I've passed crossroads, I've passed when
there's been many different ways but the other day for some reason
I stopped in that way where there was four different ways that
I could have gone and I just stopped and I stood there and
I looked at those different ways and this word came to my mind
I stood in that way, so I thought, you know, I've walked these ways
many, many times, but I've never stood and actually thought about
those ways. And the first thing was actually
to stop. You know, we rush through life,
we go headlong through life, and we don't stop. Well, the
word that is here, stanji, but not just anywhere, it is standing
in the ways, so you can actually see where these ways meet, and
they do, and I want to think how the ways branch out in this
way. You can think of two great big
branches, as it were, maybe you divide it more than that, We
think of the way of the atheist who says that there is no God. How do you know there is a God?
We cannot see him. There is no God. We just happened
to come upon this world. It is just by chance. We've just
been formed some millions of years ago. There's no being.
There's no power. There's no one we're accountable
to. There's no one that made us. It just happened. And this
virus, it just happens. It has just come by chance, and
it'll go by our diligence, or it'll just go by chance. It is
just, destiny is just in no one's hands whatsoever, or maybe they
say it is in our own hands, in our own wisdom. And then we see
on the other side another way, the way of idols, and this was
the way that Israel often went, a people that knew the true and
living God. They set up idols, literal idols,
gods of stone, gods of gold, like the calf, even at Mount
Sinai. Now the good thing you might
say about an idol for someone who can have an idol, you can
make it look like you want, you can take it where you want, you
can make it say what you want and hear what you want, It doesn't
have power to do a thing. You can just do what you like
and you've got a God that goes along with everything that you
want. And we can have many different idols too. Idols of wood and
stone, gold and silver, and this world and even people, loved
ones that we might make an idol of. And then we think, of those
gods that have not made the heavens and the earth. The Word of God
says that the gods that have not made the heavens and the
earth, they shall perish from off the heavens and the earth. There is only one true and living
God that has formed the world and all that is upon it. But
there are many, many other gods named as such. We stand in the
ways and we We notice those, we see many, many different gods,
different religions, different cults, whatever you might call
it. And then we see the God of the Bible, the Trinity, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, the God that is described from Genesis
to Revelation as the God of the Scriptures, the God of the Bible. And we stand in the way. and we see all these different
ways and then we look at those that follow the Scriptures, the
Bible and the ways start to diverge again just like with Israel here
they were not like the other heathen nations that just followed
idols they were the people of the Lord and with many of them
they still made a pretense of following the ways of the Lord
but at the same time they had their own laws and own idols
and own commandments and so we as well we stand as Christianity
but there's many that say we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
when we go this way and another goes that way and the different
paths that are walked in that way under the name of Christianity,
and we just stand in these ways because these ways meet, we hear
of them, we see them, we see the people, we mix with them,
they're all the way around us. Maybe there's one hearing me
tonight, and you've been noticing this. and you've been thinking
there are so many different religions and different gods and different
ways and there I'm in trouble with my body with this illness
and I seek some help but where do I go and what do I do? Who
do I turn to? Who do I believe? What is the
right way? Well the first way of our texting
is actually to stand in the ways instead of just running off into
one way or another to stand still to stand in those ways and while
you're standing in the middle of those ways then there is three
other things that the Lord directs you to do may the word tonight
be a word of direction to you what to do when you're standing
in this confused state and confused ways with all these different
ways and see and see. And as I stood there in the woods
I see, I looked, I looked at these different ways. I looked at what and took notice
of the different condition of each one of them. And you know
the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, speaking while on earth,
directed and warned concerning two main ways. In Matthew chapter
7, he says, Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the
gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there
be that find it. So the first thing that is brought
before us is something that is straight, a very close way and
a narrow way and then we've got a wide gate, a narrow gate and
a wide gate and behind those gates there's a narrow way and
there's a broad way and we're told that a broad way goes to
destruction and it is because for the very reason that the
gate which leadeth to life and the way to life is a narrow way
generally with this world it is that anything will do if it's
right in your own eyes you can do it you can walk in that way
there's neither a right nor wrong there's not a black or white
you can go up one way I'll go the other and we'll all get to
heaven in the same way and it's a broad way and anyone that says
well no there is only one way of salvation and that is through
the Lord Jesus Christ and there is only one way and that is to
enter into it by the Lord Jesus Christ by the calling of God
by entering in at the door and our Lord Jesus Christ He says
I am the door if any man enter in He shall find pasture. I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd, when he putteth forth his sheep, then he goeth before
them. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the way. I am, he said, the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And that is a very narrow way.
The world does not like to hear that way. But it is the way. And the way of the teaching of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the teaching of the Scriptures, is a way that
is dictated by God, not by man. It is set forth in the Word of
God, which can be tested by the Word of God, not by man. There
is a way, we are told in Proverbs, that seemeth right unto a man. but the end thereof are the ways
of death may we tremble at such a thought that we can think we're
going in the right way but we're not and so when we stand in these
ways and we see and we look and we just see in a just a general
sense what is the general way that the religious world is going
leaving aside the idols, leaving aside any outside of Christianity,
but which way is Christianity going? How does it fit in with the world? Does it come in that way that
the Lord said, I've given them thy word and the world have hated
them? Does it come under the condemnation?
Woe is you when all men shall speak well of you, for so they
did the false prophets which were before you. Here we have
Jeremiah contending with these false prophets. And the people liked to hear
what they had to say because the false prophets said you can
just continue going and living your lives and having your idols
and doing what you like and no trouble will come and no harm
will come at all. And yet the Lord says here, stand
in these ways and see and just notice and try it in this, just
by the broad way, the narrow way, but try it in this, that
the way, the right way, is Christ and Christ alone. The truth is
in Jesus. He is the key. There is none
other name given among men, whereby we must be saved. And the Apostle
Paul, he says, I desire to know nothing among you save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. And we are to actually to see
and to notice. The Lord has in the past blessed
many a poor, seeking, inquiring soul, even when they have come. and heard preaching from a so-called
gospel preacher that has been preaching error because they've
had a Bible in their hand and they've been able to test what
has been said with that. They've been able to search the
scriptures, they've been able to see the lives and the pathway
of those people and the Lord has delivered them from that
snare and brought them to walk in a right way. You think of
when our Lord was on earth and he gave sight to the man that
had been born blind, and he was able to say, one thing I know,
whereas I was blind, now I see. And up against him was all the
religious leaders of his day, the scribes, the Pharisees. Thou art his disciple. We are
Moses' disciple. Thou wast altogether born in
sins, and dost thou teach us? They derided him, they cast him
out of the temple. That dear man, he wouldn't speak
against the Lord, whether he be a prophet or not, I know not. But one thing I know, where as
I was blind, now I see, if he were not of God, he could do
nothing. One poor soul, taught of God,
standing against the religious leaders in Christ day stand ye in the ways and see
how much do we actually observe and see and test with the Word
of God the third thing that we are directed
to do is to ask ask not just ask for anything the
word that is here is ask for the old paths where is the good
way the old paths you know the way of salvation
has not changed from Adam's day to the last one of God's people
upon the earth. Everyone that is saved is saved
by faith in the Son of God. Everyone who is saved, their
sins were put away at Calvary. The Old Testament saints, by
faith they viewed through the sacrifices, the Old Testament,
ceremonial law, which was the gospel in their day. They viewed
that Christ would come and suffer and put away their sin by the
sacrifice of himself. And they died fully believing
that what God had promised he would do. And they were saved
that way. And we are saved in looking back
to what Christ has done In the ordinance of the Lord's Supper
we do show forth the Lord's death, which was past, and we show it
forth now, until he come, come again the second time. And it
is only one way, and it is an old way, in that it is the way
from the foundation of the world. God's dear people, we're told
in the Word of God, are chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. We're told that They are loved
with an everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness
has the Lord drawn them. It is an old way. It is the same
way. It is not a new way. Yes, it is a new and living way
as risen with Christ in the full understanding of the Gospel.
The Old Testament had the types and shadows The New Testament
has the anti-type, what those types and shadows pointed to. And so the New Testament interprets
the Old. The Old Testament foretold what
was to happen in the New. And so when Christ died again
and again we have that the Scriptures might be fulfilled on the way
to Emmaus, he says, in all the Scriptures the things concerning
himself. And so immediately in asking
for those old paths, we should be shunning and rejecting that
which comes in the form of, well, a 20th century religion. And you might say, but preacher,
you are using modern technology, you are preaching in this way,
and using this way is not there's a new path, no, we are still
preaching the Word, the command in the Word of God is to preach
the Word, and it is the authoritative declaration of the Word of God,
and though by constraint we are using these means, it is this
means and this alone. The Apostle Paul, he said that
he didn't want to make the Gospel of none effect, that by wisdom
of words, as it were, a great fear lest there be through something
enticing to the flesh, something that God had not ordained, that
stirs up a man's emotion, that caused him to go along a direction
instead of the Holy Spirit's blessing the Word of God. When
God has said it pleased Him through the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe, It is a foolishness of man to say
we do not want a preacher, we need something different, and
we do not need the same old truths of the Scriptures and the Old
Testament expounded and opened up as we do tonight. We want
something new. No, we're to ask for the old
paths. If Adam was saved, we want to
be saved the way he was. And if Noah was the way Noah
was, and if Abraham was the way Abraham was, Why is it that Paul,
when he writes to the Romans, and he deals very much with Abraham
and Abraham's faith, why was it the very thing that Martin
Luther in the Reformation, that it is justification by faith
in Christ alone, alone, not in any other thing, not in works
of righteousness that we have done, not in traditions of a
church, but alone upon Christ work alone. And so it is to ask
the old paths. And we think about that at individual
points. We go back to the beginning of
the Word of God. How does it begin? In the beginning,
God. And what did God do? He created
the heavens and the earth. And the old paths go back to
God forming the earth, making man upon it. Then the fall of
man. The belief that man is utterly
corrupt, that he has gone astray, that he has fallen from the image
of God, that he is under the sentence of death, that he is
not capable of anything spiritually good, that he needs mercy, he
needs saving, he needs a Redeemer, he needs a Saviour. And we go
back to those old paths of which the Lord provided for Adam and
Eve. the blood that was to make atonement
in tithe for their sin, and instead of their fig leaves, to cover
them a coat of skins. We need a righteousness provided
by God, Christ's righteousness. We need His sin-atoning sacrifice
to atone for our sins. And if those dear Old Testament
saints, and we have the list of them in Hebrews 11, that they
lived and they died by faith and they were saved they're amongst
that multitude in heaven we want to be amongst them not by a new
way not by a different way but by the old paths what other are
the old paths that which is the fear of the Lord those that really
like David feared the Lord the people of God God was real He
is mighty and great, and able to do great things. He that slew
all of the firstborn in Egypt, and before that had destroyed
the land. He that parted the Red Sea, brought
Israel through, but destroyed the Egyptians. He that for forty
years fed the children of Israel with manna from heaven, then
stopped up Jordan, brought them into Canaan, and established
them in the land of Canaan. that God that is a great and
terrible, eternal God. The fear of the Lord, we are
told, is the beginning of wisdom. And then the holiness. The Apostle
Peter is very clear of this. Without holiness, no man shall
see the Lord. The Lord is a holy, holy, holy
God. A thrice holy God. And that runs
right through the Word of God. God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints, to be had in reverence of all them
that are about him. Just using that test alone, you
could go into many assembly and you could discount it as being
a true church of God. The total irreverence and the
total rejection of any idea of the fear of God. A separateness. The Lord has
always called his people out to be separate. Come ye out from
among them. Touch not the unclean thing and
I will receive you. You shall be my sons and my daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. Let us go unto him without the
camp bearing his reproach. The message is very clear that
the church is different than the world. It is called out from
the world. Blessed be God that that is the
case. There's not one that is numbered
amongst the people of God that once were in the world, once
were enemies by wicked works, once alienated from God, but
then they have brought in. It's a wonderful thing with the
Church of God that it is secure and yet it lets poor sinners
in and that it embraces those that the Lord is pleased to draw,
draw from the world and to separate unto Himself. and the old path
is a path that is a path of separation, a path that is a good way, that
is Christ alone. A disciple is a follower, a follower
of Christ, to take up our cross and follow the Lord, obeying
the Lord and His voice and His word and seeking to do what is
right in His sign and will find what is right in His sight in
the Word of God. This is what tells us the will
of God, what is pleasing to Him and what is displeasing to Him,
what is sin and what is evil, what is to be abhorred, what
is to be fled from, and what is the only way of salvation.
He hath given Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, a name which is above
every name, the name of Jesus, every knee, should bow, and there
is no salvation in any other. It is Christ that died, yea,
rather that is risen again, that sitteth at the right hand of
the throne of God on high. It is the Lord who is exalted
that has the crown of Saviour. He is the only one that has that
crown. There is no soul that is saved
any other way. but Christ only, and so Apostle
Desire, to know nothing among men, saved Jesus Christ, and
Him crucified. The path that is this, all path
in the world, is a way that always will be, a way that is contrary
to the course of this world and a way that is led in by the Lord. They rejected the Lord Jesus
Christ. They reject us as well. Paul,
when he writes to the Ephesians, he says in chapter 2, verse 2,
wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this
world, according to the Prince of the power of the air. the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among
whom also we all had our conversation in time past, in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But
then God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, quickened us, or
made us alive together, with Christ. The good way, the old
way, is a salvation that is of God, that saves unto the uttermost
all that come unto God by Him. The blessing of the Lord is that
through the preaching of the Gospel that sinners are drawn
to that Word, are drawn by the Father to Christ, are drawn to
that only way of salvation. and are brought to walk in that
way. And so the asking is to ask for
the old paths. May you ask in prayer, ask the
Lord, Lord, teach me thy way. Teach me what is the right way.
Teach me these old paths. Teach me the way that I will
also be saved as others have seen saved before me, that I
might not miss the mark, that I might not go astray. but that
I might be numbered amongst that number of whom Christ is the
shepherd and the leader. Well, the fourth direction is
and walk therein. Not only ask, but walk therein. Put into practice that which
you hear and are directed and are told in. Walk in those ways. Really what we mean is It will
profoundly affect our lives. It is not just a doctrine in
our head, not just a teaching, but it will really affect how
we live. The Lord Jesus Christ is a living
way, and the people of God live upon Him by faith. They live
upon His Word. His Word is our meat and our
drink day by day. They live upon Him in prayer
and communion and fellowship with Him. And as daily confessing
our sins before Him, He has promised, if we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. The path of God is a path that
we walked out, and it won't only be in a spiritual way, it'll
be in a providential way. It'll affect how we live, where
we live, where we worship, It will affect what our occupations
are. It will affect what our company
is. It will affect how we make our
decisions in life. Not just we will go here and
go there, do this or that. Lord, what will thou have me
to do? And we desire to be guided by
the Word of God into what we do in the decisions of our lives. In our sorrows, we pour them
out before the Lord. In those things that we're perplexed
at, we ask the Lord to be our interpreter. I will instruct
thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide
thee with mine eye. And if we walk in these old paths,
we'll walk in that way. Dear saints, they inquired of
the Lord. They asked of the Lord. Do we ask the Lord? Do we consult
him? Do we consult his word? or do
we just live our lives as if we are our own? The apostle says,
you are not your own, you are bought with a price, wherefore
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are his. It's a blessed position to be
in as the redeemed of the Lord. So the Lord directs us to stand
in the ways, to see and to ask for the old path and to walk
therein. Then he gives in their second
point a promise. And the Lord promises in this
way, And ye shall find rest unto your souls. He gives some indication
in this point of the feelings of a soul that is in need, in
other words, that does not have rest. And if you and I are seeking
for salvation by our own works, then the law is a hard taskmaster. It says do and live, but it doesn't
give any strength or power to do. By the deeds of the law shall
no man living be justified. The law is a schoolmaster unto
Christ, And it's to make known what sin is, what the malady
is. But it's to point us to Christ
who is the remedy. I often use this illustration
in medical things. We are very used to using different
means of showing what the malady is. We have x-ray machines, MRI
machines, we have CT scanners, and all of them are to show what
is wrong. When you know what is wrong, you don't go back to
those machines to be made right. You go to a surgeon or you use
other medicines. There's one way of finding out
what is wrong. The other is the remedy. Both
are in the Lord's hands, but the Lord uses the law of God
to bring us in guilty before Him as sinners. Remember the
Lord Jesus is the saviour of sinners, not the righteous, but
sinners. Jesus came to save. And so those that have no rest
for their souls, those who cannot find any holiness in themselves,
any goodness in themselves, those who seek salvation by works of
their own, to those The Lord promises this rest. Come unto
me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. And the promise is here in walking
in this way that had been set before them, that they should
have this rest for their souls, to have the peace of God that
passeth all understanding, have that freedom from condemnation
through a broken law, to walk in Romans 8, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, to have
a hope beyond the grave, to have the fear of death taken away,
to have that hope in the Lord who went into death and through
death and rose again, and has ascended up into heaven. The blessing, the promise, there
is a promise. To enter into that promise is
a blessed thing. And this is what was said before
the people here. This is what is said before us
in the gospel as well. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Christ Jesus. Every good comes to us through
Jesus' precious blood, not just for time, but for eternity, to
have in Christ an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, reserved
in heaven for us. The blessedness of the people
of God, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, I
have a goodly heritage, or David, At the end of Psalm 23, you may
have read it, sung it many times, Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. The blessing of the Lord it maketh
rich, and it addeth no sorrow with it. And this is what is
set before us here, in standing in these ways, in asking for
the old paths, you say, Why can't I have this blessing some other
way? This is the Word of God, and
this is the way to this blessing. Well, in our third point, how
did the people in Jeremiah's day respond? The people's response,
what was it? But they said, we will not walk
therein. How clear, how solemn, that that
way should be. said before them you know they
don't even say we will not stand in the ways we will not ask they
get right down to the last point as if they know all of the right
ways but then they say we're not going to walk there in is that you that you know the right way but you
say i'm not going to walk there in It's just enough that it's
in my head, enough that I understand that I believe, but it's not
going to be my life, it's not going to affect what I do, it's
not going to constrain me to walk in the Lord's ways with
His people in the ordinances of His house, in forsaking the
sinful pleasures of this world. Is your response the same as
theirs? You know, in Hezekiah's day,
before Jeremiah's day, 130 years before, Hezekiah, he called for
a Passover. There had not been observance
of the Passover for many years. And you know, some people, they
just mocked the messengers. They would not come. Others,
they did come. You think of how it was in the
days when our Lord was crucified. away with him, away with him,
crucify him. What a response of those people.
Pilate, he says, which one, Brabus or Jesus? And they chose the
murderer, Brabus, and required that Jesus be crucified. What
was it on Pentecost, the response there? When the Holy Spirit fell
and Peter preached and he charged upon the people the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was delivered by the determinate
counsel and full knowledge of God, and ye have taken and by
wicked hands crucified and slain. What was their response? They
were pricked in the heart. What must we do? And Peter's
response was that they should repent, that they should believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, that their sins would be blotted out.
Those that received the Word, gladly received the Word, they
were baptized. In every time where the Gospel
was preached, there was a response in one way. Some believed the
Word spoken, some believed not. And one time we read, as many
as were ordained unto eternal life believed. Each time we hear
the Word of God, have the Word of God set before us, is set
before us in a way that should profoundly move us and constrain
us to walk in the ways of the Lord. Some of the complaints
of the Lord's dear people, their hard heart, that it doesn't move
and it doesn't respond. But may we lay that before the
Lord, that desire of the Lord. And like the hymn writer says,
my heart will move at thy command. But we do need that moving. We do need that which does affect
us and touch us because we have those that we have here that
rejected the word and we have a multitude that just hear it
and it doesn't move them, it doesn't affect them, it doesn't
move them to prayer or searching or carefulness in any way. And
may our desire and prayer be Lord may thy word really move
me, may it search me, may it bring me to walk in thy way and
be found truly in the blessing of this text. So may we be amongst
those who are profoundly affected and that do truly have a response
where we think of how it was in the second Pentecost with
Cornelius' household. Again, they believed, and with
the eunuch, with Philip, how that he went on his way rejoicing
after Christ had been preached to him. What a blessed, blessed
response. See here is water, what doth
hinder me to be baptized? And so may our desire be Lord,
do grant that in my heart, and may I truly be moved after thee. as these were also. May the Lord
then add his blessing and bless this word to us. Amen.