Out of the heart are the issues
of life. The Lord says to his people,
not all, but his people, my son, give me thine heart. Set thine
affection on things above. Here's my heart. That's what
all of God's people say. Here's my heart, Lord. Take and
seal it. Fix it. David said, my heart
is fixed. I'll praise Thee. A broken, a
contrite heart God will not despise. The heart that, from the heart,
worships God, spirit and truth in Christ, the truth, He will
not despise. To this man would I look, in
mercy and grace. Jeremiah 6. You read Jeremiah
5. It all goes together. What a solemn passage that is. And I urge you to start reading
the book of Jeremiah. One old writer said, the book
of Jeremiah speaks preeminently, foremost, of the latter days. This all happened to Israel and
Jerusalem, what Jeremiah was warning them of. But he is speaking
of our day right now. These are the last days. What Brother John read in chapter
5 clearly describes the day, the society that we live in,
doesn't it? Clearly, if you have eyes to
see. Jeremiah was God's messenger
to a wicked king. The nation was under a wicked
king, Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim is the man who they
read the Bible to and he cut pages out of it and threw it
in the fire until there was no more of it. Remember that? I cannot remember, I can't think
of a godly, Christian ruler in this land, the United States
of America. Anybody, some of you are older
than me, I've lived through 12 or more presidents. Woodrow Wilson
was a Calvinist. He was born in Stanton, Virginia,
but he was a Calvinist. I don't know if he knew the law,
but you think of all of them that have come and gone. Jeremiah was God's messenger
to a wicked king and a corrupt people. A rotten church. A lot of religion, but it was
rotten to the core. Full of false prophets. There
were way more false prophets than true ones. In fact, Jeremiah,
Isaiah, Hosea, just a handful of people. It's a fact. And he faithfully warned the
people, the professing people of God Israel. He faithfully
warned his people. He called them his people. But
they didn't hear him. In fact, most of them hated him.
And they wanted to silence him. Remember that man Jehoiakim tore
up the Bible, threw it in the fire. What did God say? Jeremiah
said, write another one. You can't destroy God's Word. Jeremiah lived to see the nation's
complete ruin. It happened exactly like God
said it would. Completely ruined. The city of Jerusalem was burned
with fire. The temple was destroyed. The people everywhere taken captive,
completely under the bondage and dominion of an evil ruler. And that is a description of
our world and our society and our nation held captive by the
God of this world, old and young, evil, wicked rulers. Look who we've got to choose
from for the president of the United States. And I'm glad we don't have, I'm
glad that's not our concern. It really is not. God in great mercy and love to
son, sent Jeremiah his words to warn the people. And Jeremiah
did it with tears. He's called the weeping prophet.
If you read Jeremiah, he said, He wept over all the false prophets.
They were everywhere. And what they were saying is
exactly what they're saying today. God loves you. Has a wonderful
plan for your life. No evil shall befall you. Peace. Peace. And Jeremiah said, there
is no peace. And religion wasn't the answer
back then. It was the problem. And John
quoted it, because there's no fear of God before their eyes.
They preached to God, you need not fear. Jeremiah preached to God the
Bible. And he wept. He was deeply concerned
about old and young in the last days of his generation. Paul said this to the Ephesian
church. He said, I cease not to warn
you day and night with tears. Beware the preacher who is smiling
all the time. Why did all this happen? You
read with me, it says, John read it in verse 19, they say, why
does the Lord God do all this? Because of their iniquity. Because of their perverted and
corrupt society. Because of a perverted religion. False God. A God who wasn't God
at all. A God who was at the beck and
call of human beings. A God that they could just take
or leave. And Gods they made up their imagination. Down in verse 10 of chapter 6,
look at chapter 6, here's where we are. To whom, Jeremiah said,
will I speak and give warning that they may hear. Down in verse
19, he says, they have not hearkened unto my word. They've rejected
it. Rejected. And down in verse 15, look at
verse 15, it says, were they ashamed when they committed abomination? There's no shame today. There's
just no shame. In fact, Isaiah, who was before
Jeremiah, who prophesied a hundred years before this of the destruction
of Israel and Jerusalem, he said, the whole head is sick, the whole
heart is faint, God's so-called people, professional people.
And he said, he went on to talk about this, no fear. And he said
in chapter three, he said they declare their sin like Sodom.
That all the society is just bold and brazen and unashamed
of their sin and their corrupt lifestyle and their perverted
religion. Unashamed of it. Completely unashamed. And ashamed of the glory of God. Not ashamed of what they should
be ashamed of. And ashamed of and don't want
to hear. The glory of God. Now, there's never been a day
that fits this, fits that like that. Why? Because it's more
widespread. Right before the flood, the days
of Noah, the Lord said the whole earth had corrupted His way. That's the truth. The whole earth
had corrupted the truth of who God is, what man is. And who
does the saving? And where salvation is? The whole
earth is corrupted. And our Lord said, as in the
days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Eating,
drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, buying, selling, full
of the world and the things of the world, but no thoughts of
God. But they had lots of religion. had a form of godliness, Paul
said, but denied the power thereof. That's 2 Timothy 3, of the perilous
days and last days. There's never been a society
that fit this scripture more than right now. You are so blessed
to sit here this morning and hear what you're hearing. You're
so blessed to have heard that brother read God's Word, and
now I'm going to give you the understanding of it. like the
people in Ezra's day. They heard the Scripture and
they rejoiced that men stood up and preached and gave them
an understanding of it. And they were both laughing and
crying. Crying because of the state of
things and laughing and rejoicing because they heard and they understood
and they took it to heart. So Jeremiah says in verse 16,
this is our text, Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways,
and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way,
the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your
souls, Boy, what a sad ending to that. But they said, we will not. Oh, may the Lord cause us to
hear this. Stand ye in the ways. Stand. Stop. How many times does
the Scripture tell us to stand still? Stop. If the Lord is our shepherd,
do you know what He's going to make you to do? Lie down in green
pastures. Stop. Stand still. Sit. Lie down. Hear the Word
of God. Stop your running. Stand still. Sit down here. Let's
take a look. This is what the Lord says to
Jeremiah to tell the people. Stop and look around. Stop what
you're doing and look around and see. Open your eyes to what's
going on around you. In the world, in our nation.
What it's doing. What it has become. And ask for
the old paths. where it is the good way. And
walk there and you'll find rest for your soul, but there's no
rest for the wicked. Those who will not hear. Those
who will not stop. Stay still. Brother John and
I were standing out there on the porch. We were quoting that
verse. I think it's in Jeremiah. Is
it nothing to you, all you that pass by? That's lamentation.
Zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip. Where's everybody going? What's
everybody doing? Well, this is God's Word. You
stop. Stand still. Sit down. And hear the Word of God. Take a look around. Look around. Look around you. What has all of this gotten us? Take a look within. Where are
you going? What are you after? Where are
you headed? Who are you hearing? Who are
you following? How's it going to end? What are you laying up for yourself? There's never been a day more
in a hurry on the run than now. To do what? Evil. That's what the Scripture said.
Their feet are swift to run to evil. And men and women and young
people have no time to stop and think, no time to ponder, no
time to consider, no time to read God's Word, no time to call
on God, no time to listen, sit and listen to God's Word, hear
the Word of life. We're just too busy. If you're in a hurry, and young
people, the young are prone to, you know,
let's go here, let's go there, let's do this, look, look, look,
oh, look, they're running and make bad spur-of-the-moment decisions,
you know, bad marriages and bad jobs and bad this and bad the
other and it ends bad and they're paying for it the rest of their
lives. A spur-of-the-moment, impulsive, impetuous decision
without giving it a thought, without thinking of the consequences. How's this going to end? You know, what it means to wait
on the Lord means exactly that. It means to come and sit and
stop, stand still and wait on a word, wait on the counsel,
wait on the word of the Lord. Because if we don't, we're going
to make a bad choice. And we're going to live with
it the rest of our life. Martha, you remember the story
of Martha and Mary. Martha was doing necessary things,
needful things, you know, preparing food. My dad said, God give us
more Marthas. She was serving. That's a good
thing. But if it makes you so busy,
that you can't sit down and listen to the Word of God, and read
the Word of God, and come hear the Word of God, hear it preached.
It'll make you careful and troubled about everything. It'll fill
you full of anxiety and trouble, and you'll get bitter against
this person and that person. Martha was full of self-pity. Mary, on the other hand, Mary,
was she irresponsible? No, she had a hunger and a thirst
for one thing, and so she sat down at the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ and heard His Word. And the Lord says, she's chosen
the best part. And He said this promise, He
said, that will not be taken away from her. All of this can wait. What you're
doing right now, what you're hearing right now, can't. Wait. Today is the day of salvation. If you will hear His voice, harden
not your hearts. What hardens us? The deceitfulness
of sin, of riches, of the world. Look here. Stop, stand, and look. Let's look into the Word of God.
And you know what He said in Isaiah 55? Look unto Me. and be ye safe." Brothers and sisters, stand still. Take a look around. And see the
ways, verse 16, stand in the ways and see the ways of man. Is modern man wiser than the
previous generation. Is modern man more knowledgeable
than those that went before us? I think he's more foolish. Romans
1 is a description of our day, of the unregenerate, educated, prosperous, Gentile
world. And it says, professing themselves
to be wise. They became fools, so foolish,
they don't even believe there's a God. When it's eternal power and God
has clearly seen in the things that are made. And John read
there in Jeremiah how he said, he that smites them, he said,
won't you fear me that makes the sand? What can stop tsunami? What can
stop the raging ocean? What can stop the floods? What
can stop destruction? Why is Florida still above water? There are places that are below
sea level. Do you understand that? You know
what that means to be below sea level? Suck! Waiting on one wave. Why does the water come so far
and no further? Sand can't hold back the ocean. He said, why won't you fear me
who makes the sand the boundary? Sand doesn't hold it back, but
the hand of God does. He said, the sand... Will you
not fear me? All I have to do is... And it just wipes out our sand
castles. Look at the ways of man. Look
at all around. The way of the world. The way of the transgression. The way of the wicked. Look at
it. Their thoughts, the ways of men,
they're the opposite of God. The absolute opposite of God. Read Isaiah 59. Now, either write
this down or commit it to memory. Read Isaiah 59 for yourself. It says judgment is turned way
backward. None calleth for justice, none
pleadeth for truth. Will somebody tell us the truth? Way backward. In other words,
the ways of man, the thoughts of man, this educated society,
is the opposite of the truth. What is the opposite of truth?
If it's not the truth, what is it? Come on. A ladder. Who's responsible? The God of
this world. They're of the world, held captive
by the God of this world. Therefore, speak they of the
world. That's what they talk about. And that's religion. The religious ways of man. Sabbath-keeping,
works, prayers, social causes, political causes. A man just
contacted me and he said, I want you to pray for Pastor So-and-So.
He's going to do a seven-week series on the church and politics. I said, that man doesn't preach
the same God as I do. The church is not involved with
politics. Christ said, my kingdom is not
of this world. If it was, we would fight. We're
fighting for, we're involved in another kingdom. That's our cause. Nothing else. The church is not going to change
this world. Politics has changed the church,
that's for sure. You're not going to change this
world. It's getting more and more corrupt. Because God's given
it over to a reprobate mind. And what we're concerned with
and what we're preaching is the remedy to the problem. And Christ said, if I'll be lifted
up, This is going to change the hearts and the minds and the
ways of people. You're not going to change politics.
You're going to change people. This is the one cause. This is
the purpose of the church. No other. He told young Timothy,
He that woreth entangleth not himself for the affairs of this
life. We're concerned with eternal
life. Where does that come from? It's not your choice. It's God's. So we meet together to hear the
Word of the Lord, to call on the name of the Lord, to repent
of our sins, to hear of Christ, our only hope, and hopefully
every one of us will see this is the way. There's
one way. There's one cause. There's one
truth. The church is the pillar and
the ground, not of politics, but of the truth. That's why
it stands. That's what it does. And every
true preacher sent by God does one thing. He's not a socializer,
not an organizer, not into politics. He's a preacher of the gospel.
Stand and see. Look around you. Has religion
helped our society? It's ruined it. Read for yourself. Jot this down
or memorize it. It started with Jeroboam, the
son of Solomon, who incorporated convenient religion. He said,
you don't have to go one place and worship one way in Jerusalem. That ark and that covenant, there's
other places. So he set up a calf here and
a calf there. And he said, it's more convenient.
You come over here, you come over there. That's where it started. And then it all went to pot. All religion. Until you get to
2 Kings chapter 17, and you'll see where it reads, it said,
they feared the Lord and worshipped idols. Can you do both? No. You say you fear the Lord,
but you really worship idols. And religion has got some words
and some phrases and some Bibles and all that, but it's a mixture
of truth and error. And no truth is of a lie. There
is no lie in the truth. Either God is sovereign or He's
not. Man has some rules. Either man is dead or he's not.
This whole mess started by Satan's lies telling that woman, you
can be like God, you've got free will. I know God said that, but
that's not what he meant. And his ministers, dressed like
angels, preachers, are ministers of unrighteousness. Man's righteousness. Either the man's dead or he's
not. If he's dead, what does that mean? Salvation is up to
the Lord. Ezekiel. Ezekiel. What do you preach? Who are you
preaching to, Ezekiel? They're dead. Can they live,
Ezekiel? Can these bones live? And it
was a valley full of very dry bones. They can't live. They're
dead. They can't hear. They don't have
ears. And they destroyed themselves. How are they going to live, Ezekiel?
Lord, you know. Preach. Thus saith the Lord. Not, oh
please, won't you come. They're dead. You know the only ones that have
come to Christ are those who were dead and He made alive?
How can a dead man live? One way. If the Lord calls him
from death unto life. It's not up to the dead sinner.
And anybody who preaches that is dead himself. As either dead
or he's not. God either chose a people and
gave them to Christ before the foundation of the world, or He
did not, they choose Him. Both can't be true. Jesus Christ,
the blood of Jesus Christ either cleanses us from all sin, either
puts away all the sins of all of God's people, or it doesn't.
Man's decision makes it defensible. That's blasphemy. People died
at the stake contending against this mass that people keep saying,
at least the priest, he makes it People died at the stake. They burnt their bodies alive
for contention. That's wrong. That man is an
antichrist. It's the blood. The Holy Spirit
is sovereign like God the Father and God the Son, or He's not.
The Holy Spirit is the one who grants repentance and faith and
regeneration and gives new birth, or He doesn't. Man gives birth
to himself. This is called irresistible grace.
It means sovereign grace. That we are saved when God gives
the Word. Almighty love. Arrest that man. Bind him with cords of love. Loose him from that bondage of
religion. Loose him from the chains of
sin and hell and death. But bind him. Put this yoke on
him. My yoke. And I'll fix it so he'll
never go away. That's the Spirit of God. He
doesn't make you talk like an idiot. He doesn't make you act
like a fool. He makes you speak of Christ
and he makes you wise unto salvation. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. And God's people will persevere. Either salvation is eternal or
it's not. What God does is forever. And those who are not preaching
this are not preaching the gospel. Stand and look around. See what
religion has done to our society. Perverted, filthy, vile, wicked,
no shame. You don't know if it's a he or
a she and nobody cares as long as we have plenty of money. As
long as our government keeps us in money and our lifestyle's
not changed, it's okay. We don't care if society becomes
like Worse than animals. Doesn't matter. And God kept saying, shall I
not visit you for this? You read it with me. You read
it with me. Sister, you read it. Sister, brother, didn't you?
You, you, blessed are your eyes. You have the Word of God. You
hear the Word of God. And you believe that, John, don't
you? Stand and see, he says in verse
16, and ask Ask. Stand and see and ask for the
old paths. Ask. Call. Pray. Seek the Lord. A preacher told me to ask and
call. He said, I can't. He said, you say come, but I
can't. Well, God's people know. Simon Peter wasn't calling on
the Lord. It was when the Lord called on
him. Matthew wasn't calling on the
Lord. He was counting his money. He knew. Ask Matthew. Ask Matthew,
why did you start calling on the Lord? Why did you call to
cry? Because he came to me. Because he called me. He opened my blind eyes. He quickened
my dead soul. He gave the command. Stand and
see and ask, call, ask. Who? Who should we ask? The old paths in a good way.
Who should we ask? We ask the Lord. He said, call
upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said, ask and you will receive. Ask who? Him. Why? For in Him dwelleth all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Ask Him. Ask. And you will receive. Seek. Seek what? What? Not what. Who? Find Him. Find peace. Find joy. Find rest. Find truth. He is the truth. Knock. chapter, they love, well, I stand
at the door and knock, and I do too, I love that, but that's
Christ at the door of the church, you know, and said, come, I'll
come in and sup with you, but our Lord Jesus Christ tells us
to knock on the door, and us to knock, to do the knocking,
doesn't He? What door you knock on? What door should we be knocking
on to find? Christ said, I'm the door. Knock, it'll be opened unto you. James said this, if any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask. We live in a day where everybody
knows everything. Everybody's an expert. Everybody's
a, you know, knows all they need to know. Well, we got Google. And that net is full of lies. It's just full of lies. And you
can find anything you want to hear and follow it. And say,
well, this is what they say. Who do we need to ask? Isaiah
8, he says, don't go to these peeping wizards. Familiar spirits. What is a familiar spirit? One
who brings the things of God and eternal things down to man's
level in such a way is made God to be a man and man to be a God. He's familiar. He's too familiar.
He's flippant. He's careless. He's funny. He's
foolish. He makes a mockery of the God
who's in the heaven. The God who is to be feared.
The God who is to be trembled at the word of. It's all real
familiar. God's like a Hallmark card. God's
like your mother. God's like a bottle of Coke.
He's the real thing. And on and on the blasphemy goes.
Familiar spirits, he calls them. Familiar spirits. They're on
a first name basis with the Son of God. Jesus this and Jesus
that. Don't listen to familiar spirits. Listen to those men
who fear God, who fear to use His name, who want nothing more
than for you to fear God and bow to Him. And peeping wizards. Don't listen to them. He said
in that Isaiah 8, He said, should a people go to the dead for answers? Shouldn't they go to their God
who is living for the living words? What is the living Word? It's
who? Ask the prophets, wise men like
Jeremiah. Jeremiah's a wise man, wasn't he? He'll tell you. He'll tell
you to look around, the ways of man are evil. Isaiah said,
look unto the Lord and be saved. Not these people. Not these wizards. Ask for the old path. Look at
verse 16. Ask for the old path where it
is the good way. The old path. Return real quickly
with me. Young people especially. Proverbs.
The book of Proverbs. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way, the scripture says, by taking heed according to the
word of God. Oh, that they were wise when
they consider their latter end. Apply our hearts to wisdom. You
have it, Proverbs chapter 2. Young people, you have it, everybody?
Look at verse 1. If you cry after knowledge and
lift up your voice, seek as silver, you'll understand, verse 5, the
fear of the Lord. Look at verse 15. It says, you
won't walk in the ways of the world that are crooked, they're
paths, forward. It will deliver you from the
great core, which is religion. Look at chapter 3 with me, verse
1. Forget not my law, let thine
heart keep my commandment. Length of days, long life, eternal
life, peace. Verse 3, let not mercy and truth
forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write
them on the table of thine heart. Verse 9, look at it. Honor the
Lord with thy servant, all thy increase. Trust in the Lord,
verse 5, that's it, with all thine heart. Lean not on understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him.
He shall direct thy paths. Look at chapter 4, real quickly,
chapter 4. It says in verse 25, Let thine eyes look right on.
Let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path
of thy feet. Where are you going? Who are
you going with? How is it all going to end? Let all thy ways
be established. Turn not to the right hand nor
to the left. Remove thy foot from evil. The
paths of the Lord are old paths. What is meant by paths? Well, a path is a way that is
cleared from all the impediments and
stumbling and so forth. It's usually, a path is usually
a very narrow way and it leads somewhere. As for the old paths,
old, old paths, a path that's been walked in for thousands
of years, paths, The paths of the Lord are His words, His wisdom,
His directions, given by God to man. This is the way, walk
me around, in His Word. It is the opposite. It leads
to life, His paths. All the paths of the Lord are
mercy and truth, such as lay hold of His covenant, the good
way. I'm going to get to that in just
a minute. Paths. Old paths. You know, talk about,
look around you at the ways of man. Old is better. It really is. Old is better. The good old days. You know that
for 6,000 years, man didn't have electricity or gasoline. And we'd all die without it now. The old path. Man didn't have
modern technology, didn't have devices. Are we better off? Are
we really better off today? Or worse? A whole lot worse.
People are weak, soft, lazy, useless, unable to get by without
these things. Can't go a day without this. We're so completely run by, and
overcome by, and depended upon. A telethon. Are we better off? We're worse. Families are torn apart. Society
is a mess. Social media is running this
country, forming the minds of people, and they're following
it like blind mice. We're a whole lot worse off.
Old path. Now, this is the paths that he's
speaking of here. or not just the good old days
and the good old ways, but the old path, meaning the Word of
God, the way of God, the will of God, old path, as old as God
Himself. This comes from God Himself.
It's the paths that Abel walked in. It's the paths that Enoch
walked in. It's the paths that Noah walked in. There's a great
cloud of witnesses that testify that this is the way walked therein. Wherein is the good way, it says
in verse 16. The old paths, wherein is the
good way, and walk therein. The paths of the Lord, all the
paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, and they all lead one
way, one place, one end. All the Word of God from Genesis
to Revelation leads us to one conclusion. Jesus Christ is the
way. There is no other way. The good
way. Any other way is bad, it ends
bad. Christ said, I am the way that
leads to life. Straight is the gate and narrow
is the way, the path, that leads unto eternal life. And few there
be that find it. Are there few that be saved?
Yes. in any given time, in any given generation. Preacher, you're
too narrow. I didn't say that. Jesus Christ
said that. In fact, Christ said, I'm narrow. I'm the way. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. And broad is the road, and wide
is the gate, And many there go. It's not this path. It's not
this way. It's not broad and wide and so
many. It's narrow. It's so narrow you
go in single file. One at a time. You got to come
to the Lord. He's got to bring you. When I
lived in a cabin in the woods in Kentucky for a couple of years,
And it was the woods. And you know why they call Kentuckians
briar hoppers? If you go back in the woods of
Kentucky, it's full of these briars. And it's a mess. It's an entanglement. You'll
just be entangled in it, buddy, if you ever get in. But anyway,
I lived in a cabin in the woods. And hidden from view out in the
woods below my cabin, there was a path. A path. It was clear. It was
a way. And what caused that path was
not human beings. It was deer. The heart. Now what is the deer, the dumb
animal? What does the heart pant after? What does the heart looking
for have to have it every day? Water. And I went out onto that
path. I stumbled onto that path. I
was out in the woods, entangled in the mess in that wilderness.
Just entangled. And I came across this hidden
path. Well, I got in it. And I started
walking. And it led to a beautiful lake. Pristine, calm. A repose. A rest. A tranquil place of beauty. Something God had created. A
place where you could lie down and rest beside the still waters,
and rest your troubled soul. And that's just what I did. Well,
brothers and sisters, look around you. It's a tangled mess. It's a web that men have woven. Don't get caught in it. It's
a net. The Lord needs to show you the
way that leads unto water. And that is Christ. The water
of life. That woman at the well, she was
looking for this and looking for that, and she could not find
any peace, she couldn't find any satisfaction, no fulfillment
in people or things, nothing. And lo and behold, Christ, the water of life, was
waiting on her at the well. This is a well, people. This
is a well. Dug by the Son of God Himself. A repose. An oasis in the wilderness. a place that shows you the path,
a clear and shiny light to bring you to Christ, the water of life. And he said, walk therein, walk
therein, come to Christ now, come to Christ right now. Well,
you just said I couldn't. Well, here I'm telling you, come.
Follow Christ, don't follow the world. Look around you, don't
follow them. They're blind leaders of the
blind. Don't follow religion. It's not helping, it's hurting,
it's a mess. Follow Christ. Follow those that follow Christ. Walk by faith, not sight. Believe God. Trust God. Believe
His Word. Don't believe the Word of man.
Turn off Google. And call on the Lord. Listen
to what I've got to say. Walk with Him. Walk like Him. The
way of truth, the way of love. Walk in love. Walk in the light
as He is in the light. Walk in mercy. Walk in goodness. Paths of righteousness. You'll
find rest for your soul. Rest for your heart, for your
mind. Rest for your conscience. Men
aren't at rest. They're not going to find any
rest because their consciences are bothering them. And religion
can't get rid of that. So they turn to drugs and they
turn to this and that. Oh, their religion's a drug.
They try to cure the symptoms when they're not addressing the
problem. You find rest. The only rest
for a guilty conscience is in Jesus Christ. Rest from laboring
to be happy. Rest from laboring in religion.
Rest from laboring in your own work. Rest from laboring. Rest
from fear. What's going to happen tomorrow?
What's going to happen to our world? I'm warning you, I'm telling
you, and Jeremiah was telling them, that what's going to happen,
it's all going to be destroyed. You know what he went on to tell
them? Keep reading, Jeremiah. Keep reading. You know what he
went on to tell them? Dwell where you're at. Just dwell there with the
Lord. Call on the Lord. Walk by faith.
And it's all going to be destroyed. But not you! You find rest from fear, rest
from worry, rest from worrying about who's the next election. You know, if God shows you what's
really important, He'll make you have diligence to make your
calling and your elections here. This is the election we need
to be caught up with. Am I one of the elect? Has God
chosen me? Rest from fear, rest from worrying
over the world, rest from worrying over the future. Let me close
with this. Years and years ago, about 6,000
years ago, about 5,000, there was a man named Noah, and he entered into an ark. He and seven people. Few. Because God said, you know why
he went into the ark? God warned him. Noah being warned
of God moves with fear. And what did he do? Well, he
tried to change politics. He prepared an ark. the saving
of his house. He was interested in his sons
and his daughters-in-law and his wife and himself being found
in that ark. One thing consumed him for 100
years. And you know what happened? It
happened just like God said. And he said, Come thou in thy
ark. Come thou, thou and thy family,
come into the ark. You know why they went into the
ark? Because God said come. And they did. And you know what
they did? They went into that ark. And God shut the door. The world was shut off. They
were shut in. They were crucified to the world
and the world to them. And you know what Noah did for
another year after that? He rested. While the world was
drowning, in perdition and destruction. Everybody in it that wasn't in
that ark was drowning. And Noah was resting. It happened
exactly like God said. And then the door flew open.
After a long wait it seemed like. It wasn't long. It was short
work. God opened that door and Noah
and My new world. The only people... Brother Kelly,
think about it. That new world. The only people
living there were those that were found in
the ark. God's called chosen people. That's where I want to be found.
That's where I want you to be found. So stand and see. Stop. Look. Consider. Ask the old paths. Ask the Lord to open the Word
to your understanding. Wherein is the good way? Where
is Christ? And you know what? Walk therein.
Follow Him, not the Word. Follow Him. Don't follow your
dreams. Follow Christ. And you'll find rest for yourself.
That's what I want for you. You know that? That's like Naomi
said to Ruth. Ruth, you know what I want for
you? I want you to find rest. I want you to find grace. That's
what you young ladies, you know what I want you to find? I want
you to marry Boaz. I want every one of you young
ladies to marry Boaz. You know what? It doesn't matter
what happens from now on. It just doesn't matter. You're a redeemer. Okay, let's close with number
252.