I want you to note very clearly
that the righteous never see their own righteousness and never
see their own righteous deeds and they have nothing to boast
on because when the Lord says, when did we do it? When did we
do it? Those who are the unrighteous,
verse 44, they say, when did we not? minister under thee. They have much to boast in. I
want us as we come to passages of Scripture like that, and that's
a deep and serious passage of Scripture, I want us to be mindful
of the fact that all of those pictures there are pictures of
the proclamation of the Gospel. They are pictures of proclaiming
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm not for one moment
saying that the people of God shouldn't do any of those things
physically. But really, who are the hungry? They hunger and
thirst after righteousness. The real hungry need to hear
about the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's
the real food, that's He is the bread of life. They're thirsty,
and we give them a drink. The strangers, they're estranged
from their mother's wombs. In this world, when they're taken
into the fellowship of God's people, they're gathered. They're
gathered by the Lord, they're gathered to the Lord, and they're
gathered into the fellowship with His people. And they're
naked, aren't they? They're naked in this world. What's the clothing?
What's the robe of righteousness? It's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ that He robes His people with. I'm not saying
not to do any of these things. that we are soul sick, but we
are prisoners, we are captive to sin and to Satan and to this
world. And we need, in the gospel comes
and visits the prisoners. The gospel comes and visits those
who are trapped and the gospel comes and declares the glory
of God to them. I want us to contemplate what
the Lord Jesus Christ is called and calls himself in Malachi
chapter 1 verse 14 he says I am a great king I am a great king
and this great king sends his word out and I want us to look
at a verse regarding us and our journey in this world and where
we are to go searching. I said that the Lord provides
clear direction for His people in this world. He's promised
to be the shepherd of His sheep. He's promised to lead and guide
His people into all the truth. He's promised to protect his
sheep from the wolves. He brings them into his fold
and he protects them. And I was talking to Max about
a verse that I do love and it's a verse that's very heavy in
Jeremiah chapter six, verse 16. It says, thus saith the Lord,
stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths. When the Lord Jesus comes to
speak in John chapter 6, he's talking about the very old paths,
the old paths of God in eternity. Stand ye in the ways and see,
and ask for the old paths. Where is the good way? And walk
therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. I want my soul
to be at rest. I want my soul to be at rest
in the arms of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I want
my soul to rest here in him and to rest eternally in him. But
listen to what he says earlier on in this passage of scripture,
Jeremiah 6.13. For from the least of them unto
the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness. From
the prophet even unto the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. And what's their false dealing? Verse 14, they have healed the
hurt. of the daughter of my people
slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace." Satan
and all the ministers, all his ministers who come and preach
the righteousness of men are preaching peace and they're healing
the daughter of my people slightly. They're saying peace to people
when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination? No. They were not at all ashamed,
neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among
them that fall. At the time that I visit them,
they shall be cast out, saith the Lord. Jeremiah, of course,
was preaching with the armies of Nebuchadnezzar at the gates
of Jerusalem. He'd taken captive Daniel and
Ezekiel and the host of those, and he took them to Babylon and
protected them there, and he was going to destroy Jerusalem,
utterly destroy Jerusalem. You can read about the sadness
of what followed these warnings from Jeremiah in the book of
Lamentations. It's a shocking, shocking thing. It happened to Jerusalem twice
in the days of Jeremiah and in 30 years after the Lord went
back to glory, he destroyed Jerusalem again with exactly the same purpose
and exactly the same way. This is not just a picture of
the prophets in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a picture
of the prophets in Jeremiah's day and it's a picture of the
prophets in our day. Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed, neither
could they blush. Therefore shall they fall. But I love what the Lord says. I'm horrified by the response
to what the Lord says. If you listen to what goes on
here, this is how people respond to God's true prophet who told
them the truth of who God is, the truth of how God saves sinners,
the truth of who the Lord Jesus Christ is in his power as King
and Redeemer. Listen to what they say. He says
you'll find rest for your souls. You stand in these ways and you
see and you ask for the old paths and you walk there and it's called
a good way and you shall find rest for your soul. But they
said, what they said, we will not walk therein. Also, I sent watchmen over here
saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet. The sound of
the trumpet is the gospel sound, isn't it? The sound of the trumpet
is the trumpet of Jubilee. Sound of the trumpet. But they
said, no, we will not hearken. Therefore, hear, you nations,
and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth,
forhold, I will bring evil upon these people, even the fruit
of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words,
nor to my law, But rejected it. Rejected it. If you want to find
out what that looked like in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ,
just turn to Mark chapter 7 and you'll see how those Pharisees
of the days of the Lord Jesus Christ rejected the law of God,
rejected the commandments of God. Verse 20, to what purpose cometh
there to me incense from Sheba and the sweet cane from a far
country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your
sacrifices sweet unto me. If you bring anything other than
the Lord Jesus Christ to God, he's not going to accept it.
Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will lay stumbling
blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together
shall fall upon them, and neighbor and his friend shall perish. Who did you follow in Jerusalem
in Jeremiah's day? In Jerusalem in the days of the
Lord Jesus, there were many multitudes of people who were claiming to
speak on behalf of God and claiming that they were God's prophets.
In fact, they were so confident of them being the people who
spoke on God's behalf, that they were prepared to judge John the
Baptist and judge the Lord Jesus Christ and judge his disciples,
and they did it continually. Such is the brazenness of people
who are lost. So the question is, which prophet
do you follow? Which voice do you follow? So
let's go back to the beginning of verse 16. I think it's just
lovely how the Lord puts this together. 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 you'll find rest for your
souls. Our God both commands and commends
his people to seek rest for their souls. How can I have assurance
that God is pleased with me? How can I, a sinner who sins
in thought and word and deed continually, how can I find peace
with God? On what basis do I have the right
to actually stand before anyone and speak on God's behalf? In
a world that has so many voices calling. There are millions of
voices calling people and shouting. They're shouting at us, aren't
they? So many of us have wandered down all of these paths, haven't
we, over our lives. I've wandered down dozens of
them, and the Lord is merciful to them. There's so many voices,
there's so many ways, there's so many paths. Which one do you
follow? And where do these paths all
lead? If it's from God, it'll lead
back to God. If it's from Satan, it'll lead
me down a myriad of paths to eternal death. We read about
what happens in Matthew chapter 25. So God's advice to those
who have heard him is to know something of his being and something
of his work. He says, stand ye in the ways. He says, stand. Stop and consider. Wait and reflect. Stop your doing for a moment
and contemplate. Examine things. Stand you in
the ways. The word ways is saying you stand
and you look as if you're in the middle of standing on a little
hill and everywhere that proceeds from it there's a little road,
isn't it? There are various roads. Before you are so many roads. Those roads indicate that they
are, in the original, they are well-made and well-trafficked. You can travel on any of those
roads and you'll always have companions. You can travel on
any of those roads and you'll always have people who are preaching
peace to you. Come and join us, they're saying
over and over again. They're well made. They're much
trafficked. They're roads to commerce. They're
roads to pleasure. They're roads to esteem. They're
roads to religious prominence. They're roads to acceptance and
honor. There are many roads, you stand,
you stand, you stop all you're doing, and you take a moment,
a long moment, to contemplate. You stand in the ways, and you
see, and see, while you have stopped, consider, way up the
ways, and see. Use the sight, use the light. I love what Ralph Barnhart said,
he said if you walk in the light that God has given you, he will It's so true. God gives light
through his word. God gives the light of the world,
all of the light, the real light of the world, shines the light
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, stand you in the ways
and see, and then he says to ask, to ask God, to plead with
God. Ask, you ask God. God has commanded
you to stand, to see, and now he commands you to ask. Ask,
ask, ask and he'll give. He's not a reluctant giver, our
God. How does God answer his command
to ask? It's through his word and through
his spirit there, his two witnesses. And you ask what? He says to
ask. You stood. You stopped. You've seen. You've asked. You ask for the old ways. You ask for the old ways. So
this is a different word from those well-trodden roads that
we talked about earlier that are much trafficked. These are more like A well-trodden
bush track, for want of a better analogy in Australia, is not
the broad road. This is a narrow road. You ask,
the ways are made for easy passage. This is a narrow way, narrow
and constricted. You can read about it in the
Sermon on the Mount. Old paths, what are the old paths? I do love Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon, written by Solomon,
is a glorious, glorious picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and
his bride and his dealings with her, her ups and downs and her
joys and her delights. And she says, this is the church
speaking to the Lord, tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where
thou feedest? Where do you feed? Where do you
find nourishment? And where thou makest thy flock
to rest at noon? It's a glorious picture, isn't
it, of the Lord Jesus Christ taking his flock to himself and
taking them to a place that's a shaded place. In the middle
of the day, in the heat of the day, he takes his flock there.
And she says, why should I be one that turneth aside from the
flocks of thy companions? Ask for the old paths. Ask for
the old paths. What's that word old mean? This
is a command from God for rest for our souls, isn't it? The
old paths, it means Something that is eternal. Something whose
origin is beyond the sight of this world. The old paths, you
take the old paths back as far as you possibly can go and where
do you end up? You end up with the triune God
in glorious community, in glorious companionship with covenantal
promises, which reign and rule over all things. They're the
paths you are to take. They're the paths you are to
ask. If you want to have rest for your soul, you find a path
that begins before the foundation of this world, and you find a
path that goes to beyond this world, and all of this is wrapped
up. You ask for that path. It's eternal, this path, isn't
it? It's eternal in the beginning
and its future goes evermore and evermore. Also, it means
that it's something that's concealed and hidden from normal vision.
Don't forget what you're asked to do. You stand in the midst
of all of those ways and you see, you examine, and you ask
God, You ask God. This is his command for those
who will find rest for their soul. See, its beginnings are
unseen to the world, and so are its endings. So the origin of
this path is concealed. It's that eternality is so significant
that we have to ask God that he might answer and show us where
that path is. It's written all over the scriptures,
isn't it? It's written all over the scriptures in John chapter
6. That's exactly where the Lord Jesus Christ is taking these
people. And when they leave... However many it is in that multitude,
when they leave, he'll turn to his disciples in John 6 and says,
there's a door you can go as well. I'm not here. I'm not here to win an election.
I'm not here to win a popularity contest. I'm here to declare
the glory of God. The true prophet is not concerned
about numbers. The old path The old path looks back in eternity
to the covenant of grace, the covenant in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The old path looks back and looks
to the terms and conditions of the eternal covenant of grace.
I love to think about it, isn't it, that God chose His people
in Christ before the foundation of the world. God elected His
people in the elect one from before the foundation of the
world. God predestinated everything that would come to pass in all
of their lives in this world so that they must, they must
be brought into fellowship with Him. They must be brought. Everyone
that the Lord Jesus Christ died for must be saved because they
were saved from the foundation of the world. That's the path
that's old. That's a path that's not trodden
by many people. It's not a path that exalts the
flesh of man. It's a path that exalts the glory
of God. And God calls this path, this
old path, it's a good way. It's a good way. It's a pleasant
way. It's a valuable way. It's a beautiful
way. It's the best way. God is the only one. who has
the right to declare anything good. We are so prone to saying
that there's such a good person, I hear again and again and again
that that person has a good heart. Not according to God they don't
have a good heart. The heart of every man is deceitfully
wicked and beyond cure, says God. People say, well, give your
heart to Jesus. What on earth would He want with
your heart? He'll give you a new heart. That's
the old path, isn't it? He gives you. He creates a new
creation, created in righteousness and true holiness. That's the
one. That's the one that He fellowships
with. He's delighted with that half. See, God is the only one
who's able to judge and know good and evil. Man is continually
and forever inverting good and evil. You are to stand. You are to see. You have before
you a multitude of paths. And you ask for the old path.
It's called the good way. And he says, walk therein. Walk
therein. Walk within this path. Follow
along this way. And what's the result of it? Rest for your souls. This is a turbulent world and
God's people, who know themselves to be sinners, are the ones who
are most anxious about having rest. The rest of the world,
where religious and profane can find their peace and their rest
in all the things of this world, they can climb over each other
trying to gather as much as they possibly can. you find rest for
your souls. You find rest for your souls.
So let's ask the Lord to cause us to simply do as he said. Stand. Stand. Stop your doing. Stop your walking. Stop your wandering. Just stop
and examine. And there is a book to examine
it by, and the description of the Lord Jesus Christ in here
is so abundantly clear. And you can scissor. And you
use the light that he has given through the preaching and proclamation
of the gospel and you walk there. You walk in that. And it's a
good path and you'll find rest for your souls. The overwhelming
majority of people in this world will respond and have responded.
Countless millions. I would think possibly in excess
of a thousand that I and I have spoken to over this last 20 years. Certainly when you add them up
to the people that our brothers and sisters here and around the
world have spoken to, and we keep saying, will you please
examine these things? Will you stop? Will you ask about
this old path? And the response has been again
and again and again. They said, We will not walk therein. May the Lord cause us to stop,
to stand, to examine. There is an old way, it's a glorious
way, where God gets all the glory and his people get loaded with
all the benefits. Let's go back to Psalm 68 and
remember how we started this morning. Our great God, Our God,
verse 20, he that is our God is the God of salvation, and
unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. The Lord Jesus
Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
All the issues that flow from death belong to him, but what
a glorious title of our God, the God of our salvation, the
God of salvation. Thou hast ascended on high, Thou
hast led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts for men. Yea, for the rebellious, that
the Lord might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily
loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. That's where you examine. That's
where you see. That's where you ask. That's
where rest for our souls are in the God of our salvation.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you would Do as you have promised and commanded here in the lives
of everyone here and those that we love and care for in you,
our Father. We do pray that we would know
what it is to find rest for our souls in the perfect and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, Heavenly Father, to
ask at the throne of grace Oh, our Father, there are so many
ways before us. You ask us to come boldly to
the throne of grace that we might help, we might find help in our
hour of need. Make us needy, heavenly Father,
that we might ask and receive from your gracious hand.