Alright, open your Bibles with
me to Jeremiah chapter 6. Book of Jeremiah chapter 6. Now tonight I'm just going to
make a few comments on just a few verses. On the subject of peace
where there is peace. Last time I dealt with the opposite. peace where there is no peace. And just to catch you up to date,
as you see in the first eight verses of this prophecy in chapter
six, God through the prophet Jeremiah issues forth the judgment
of his wrath against the sin of Judah and Jerusalem. He speaks
of the certainty of judgment. God must punish sin. He can do nothing less because
He's holy. And that is a comfort to the
people of God because we see that the full punishment of all
our sins has already taken place on the cross of Calvary. And
what a joy and peace there is in believing. That's what Paul
wrote. Joy and peace in believing. Believing what? Not just believing
anything. but believing Christ, resting
in Him. And then from verse 9 to verse
15, he shows the reasons for that judgment. God always judges. Whenever His wrath comes forth,
there's always a good reason, a just cause. He's never unfair. God is never unfair. You all
have read Romans chapter 9. And that's the way man sees God. Man by nature. God's unfair. God's unjust. And how, you know,
that's the accusation. But God's never unfair. He's
never unjust. And He basically gives two reasons
for the judgment of His wrath upon this nation. And it falls,
as I said last week, it falls under the heading of what He'd
said over here in chapter 2 when He talked about how His people
had forsaken him, the fountain of living waters, they've forsaken
God, they've forsaken Christ, and they hewed out cisterns,
that's a well, broken cisterns that can hold no water. That's
a picture of idolatry, false religion, even false Christianity
would fall under that heading. And what he says here in these
verses in chapter six, the two reasons, number one's willful
unbelief. Man has ears, but he won't hear.
That's us by nature now. If we hear the gospel, I'll tell
you, I hope I never get over this. And I hope you never get
over it too. That if we hear the gospel, and
I mean hear it with the hearing ear, the spiritual ear, that
is a marvelous, miraculous work of God, isn't it? It's grace. That's a miracle. And I think
sometimes we kind of have a tendency to just glance over that. I don't
think we should. That's a miracle. When a sinner
truly comes to faith in Christ, that's a gift of God. That's
a work of God. That's the creation, isn't it?
The new creation. And then the second reason he
brings out here for God's just wrath is arrogance and pride
and self-righteousness that is summarized here in verse 13 through
15. And listen to this, let's read
those. Verse 13, for from the least of them even unto the greatest
of them everyone is given to covetousness That's greed. And remember that greed can be
not just for money now. It can be for anything that dishonors
God. Even religion. And then he says,
we usually equate it with money or things like that because we
see so many charlatans who are just out to get people's money.
And that's so common. But he says, and from the prophet,
even unto the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. That means they're
not telling the truth. Verse 14, here's the issue. They've
healed also the herd of the daughter of my people slightly. It's like
a person who becomes concerned about their state before God. A person who becomes concerned
about their sin. And what do these false preachers,
these false prophets, these false priests do? Saying, peace, peace,
when there is no peace. Now I want you to think about
this message in light of this question. What is the worst thing
that can happen to you or to me in this life? What is the
worst thing that could ever happen to us? Now, we can think of a
lot of bad things. You may be in your own life,
maybe something you're going through now or maybe something
in the past, and you say, boy, that's the worst thing I ever
went through. And certainly we can read stories and histories
of men like Job. Remember what happened to Job?
He lost everything. They say the Jewish mothers,
their common retort to their children is, well, at least you've
got your health. Well, Job didn't even have that. You couldn't
say to him, at least you've got your health. He lost everything,
including his health. But that still wasn't the worst
thing that could happen to him. Whether you're sick or healthy,
poor or rich, jobless or employed, Whatever, what's the worst thing?
Whether you're cut down in the prime of life or you live as
old as Methuselah, 969 years, what's the worst thing? The worst
thing that can happen to you or could happen to me in this
life is to be settled and established in a false security of salvation. That's the worst. Because that
is soul damning. That's right. That's soul killing. And that's what's happening here.
Peace, peace when there is no peace. Look at verse 15. Were
they ashamed when they committed abomination? Now he's talking
about things that men are proud of. They weren't ashamed of this. This is their religion. What
is he talking about? Well, what is this false peace?
Peace, peace when there is no peace. Will it's any claim or
comfort of peace that a sinner takes between him and God without
Christ. And without Christ exclusively. Christ 100%, nothing added, nothing
taken away. And they weren't ashamed of it.
He says in verse 15, nay, they weren't ashamed. He said they
were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. They couldn't
even blush, they were so proud of it. man's pride, man's works,
man's righteousness, man's religion, his own claim of goodness, his
experiences. People are proud of it. Ask them.
Ask people. Are you saved? Well, let me tell
you what happened to me. I had a dream. They ought to
be blushing at that. or I had an experience when I
was 12, walked and all that. Listen, he said, therefore they
shall fall among them that fall. That's why this is the worst
thing that can happen now. At that time that I visit them,
that's God's visitation of wrath, they shall be cast down, saith
the Lord. Now that's peace where there
is no peace. That's a satanic message. Remember I told you
last time, that was the essence of Satan's first message. when
he told Eve, thou shalt not surely die. God said you're going to
die if you sin. Sin deserves death. Satan says,
now thou shalt not surely die. And here's the thing now, just
like in the days of Jeremiah, you might find one, two, maybe
a few true preachers of God who will tell the truth, but you'll
find a multitude I mean a multitude of false preachers who will tell
you what you want to hear by nature. And see, that's the problem. This message of peace, peace
when there is no peace, that sounds good to people. That's
what they want to hear. So what's the remedy? What is
the remedy? Well, here it is. Now let's look
at verse 16 and 17. He says, thus saith the Lord,
stand ye in the ways. That's the first thing he says,
the ways. What are the ways? And see, that
means to understand, realize. Now this is by revelation. Man
by nature is blind, he's dead. And then here's the second thing,
and ask for the old paths, where is the good way? The old paths. And here's the third thing, and
walk therein. Walk in those old paths. And
then here's the fourth thing, and you shall find rest for your
souls. You'll find rest for your souls.
Now, here's the tragedy of the natural man. Remember, Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them,
they're spiritually discerned. Well, here's the tragedy of the
natural man. Look at the last of verse 16. But they said, we
will not walk therein. Now, if you want to talk about
the will of man, there it is. The will of fallen man, right
there it is. We will not. Somebody said, God said, whosoever
will, here's man, we will not. That's man by nature. And I'll
tell you, if you've been made willing, what does the scripture
say? Day of God's power. It's not because you were better
than those who said we will not, it's because God had mercy. Isn't
that right? Y'all believe that? You believe
that here at this church? I do. That's the way God does
things, isn't it? Why does He do it that way? So
that no flesh can glory in His presence. Isn't that right, Al?
No flesh can glory in His presence. It's to put us in the dust where
we belong. Humble us down. And He says in
verse 17 also, I set watchmen over you saying, hearken to the
sound of the trumpet. Hear the warning. That's what
He's saying. That's what the trumpet sound
was. It was a warning that danger was coming. attack. Here's the will of man, but they
said, we will not listen. We will not hearken. There's
man by nature. Well, let me just look at this
in this light. The only way of true peace, the
first thing he says, stand ye in the ways. What ways? The ways
of God. The ways of God. We see the ways
of God in his word. What are the ways of God? The
ways of God can be summed up in Christ. I know that seems
like a simplistic answer to the multitudes of today because they
want psychology, they want philosophy, some of them even want theology.
But you can sum it up in Christ who said in John chapter 14 and
verse 6, I am the way. All the ways of God, the ways
of peace, are summed up in the one way, which is Christ Jesus
and Him crucified and risen. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Now man has his way and his ways. Proverbs 14, 12 and Proverbs
16, 25. This verse is repeated twice
in Proverbs that says, There is a way which seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The Scriptures,
the eternal Word of God, are our only guide to point us to
the ways of God, to the way of peace, the way of salvation.
Apart from being pointed by the Holy Spirit through the Word
of God to that way, what are we? We're lost. What is it to
be lost? It's to not know the way. How
can you know if you're saved? Well, do you know the way? Look
back over there at the passage that Brother Stan read in Psalm
1. The very first Psalm opens in this manner. And he's talking
about blessedness. But he starts with a negative.
Blessed is the man. Now we know a blessed man in
scripture is one who is justified before God through the blood
and righteousness of Christ. That's a blessed man. He's one
who has been shown the way by the power of the Spirit as he's
born again, convicted of his sin, he knows the way of sin,
but he knows the way of peace in Christ. So he says, Blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, the
ungodly counsel this way, peace, peace, when there is no peace,
nor standeth in the way of sinners, the way of sinners is the way
of man's works, will, religion. That's what the way of sinners
is. Now sinners have other ways, but that covers the whole kit
and caboodle. Everything that the highest that
man can do in order to make himself, try to make himself fit for God's
presence and acceptance and on down. It's any way but Christ
and His blood and His righteousness. And He says, nor standeth in
the way, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, that is those
who say, we will not listen. Because it's not important enough
for me. I've got better things to do. That's not a valuable
thing to me. That's a scorner. If you hear
the gospel that exalts Christ and shows you the only way of
peace, and you don't care about it, right there's you. Scornful. That's what it says. And notice
how it puts it. Here's man walking, here's man
standing, and then he sits down. What's he talking about? He's
talking about people who are established in a false security. But he says
the blessed man is not like that. The blessed man, verse 2, delights
in the law or the word of the Lord. You see, it's the word
of the Lord that guides us to the ways of the Lord and His
way in Christ. And in His law does he meditate
day and night. Listen to this, the word peace
is not mentioned here, but it describes a peaceful scene, doesn't
it? Verse three, he shall be like
a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringeth forth his
fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, whatsoever
he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so. This
is the ways of God. The Bible says the Scriptures
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus. Peter told the Lord, he said,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. What do the Scriptures tell us? It tells us Christ is
the way. Christ is the way. Turn over
to Matthew chapter 7 with me. Sermon on the Mount. Verse 13. And you know, a lot of times,
I think we segment these scriptures to the point that we lose their
meaning. And we shouldn't do that. And I'll show you why. He says in verse 13, he says,
enter ye in at the straight gate. Now you notice that word straight,
what it means, that means a narrow way. And he describes it, for
wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction
and many there be which go in there. That's the ways of man.
That's the ways of works religion. That's the way of Cain. Jude
called it the way of Cain. All right. Verse 14, because
straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
life and few there be that find it. Now, who are those few? Well, it's whoever God reveals
himself to. Reveals Christ to him. But it's a straight and
narrow way. It will not allow you to bring
the baggage of your self-righteous works and issues and experiences
in. You come alone, a naked sinner
to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, a thirsty sinner to
be quenched with the water of life, a hungry sinner to be fed
with the bread of life. And then he says in verse 15,
now don't segment this, beware of false prophets. which come
to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves."
Now, who are these false prophets? They are those who point sinners
to the broad way that leads to destruction. And their main message
is peace, peace, when there is no peace. What do false preachers
tell people? Do this, do that, stop doing this, stop doing that,
and God will save you, God will accept you, God will bless you.
Now what they say? He says you'll know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? He says even so every good tree
bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither
can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire,
wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Now I'll tell
you what I believe that's talking about. It's talking about this,
that sinners will not be brought to have peace with God through
Christ under the preaching of a false gospel, peace, peace,
where there is no peace. That cannot produce the good
fruit of the children of God. That message. Faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing what? By the Word of God. the gospel
is called the gospel of peace there's only one gospel of peace
and that's the gospel that preaches and lifts up and exalts the prince
of peace who made peace by the blood of his cross until you
come to glory save only in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
you don't have peace with God in your conscience true peace
you have a false sense of security but now under the preaching of
the gospel The only thing that can be produced there is the
good fruit of God's people. Somebody said, well, don't unbelievers
listen to it? They do, but the gospel didn't
produce them. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believe it. Now, what is the
ground of peace? Look back at Psalm 85. Turn back
here. I want you to see this. Psalm
85. Now, what did he say over here
in Jeremiah chapter 6? He says, Stand ye in the ways,
the ways of God, the ways of God's peace, the ways of God's
salvation, the ways of God's grace. Look here in Psalm 85. This is a prophecy of Christ,
verse 9. Well, verse 8, let's look up
at verse 8. He says, I will hear what God the Lord will speak.
Now, false preachers speak peace where there is no peace. Now,
I want to hear what God the Lord will speak. You see the difference
there? And if any man's preaching the
Word of God, that's what you're hearing. If they're preaching
the Word of God, that's why you need to test the preachers, test the
spirits. He says, I will hear what God
the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people and
to His saints, His sanctified ones. sanctified by the Father
in electing grace, sanctified by the Son in redeeming grace,
sanctified by the Spirit in regenerating grace. But let them not turn
again to folly, foolishness. Surely His salvation is nigh
them that fear Him, that worship and believe and trust in Him,
that glory may dwell in our land. And listen, now here's the ground
of it all. Listen, verse 10. Mercy and truth are met together. There's mercy, but not in a lie. Peace, peace when there is no
peace is a lie. I don't want that kind of mercy.
How about you? I want that mercy that is grounded in truth. That's
mercy in Christ, the mercy seed. It's through the blood of the
crucified one. And then look at the next line.
He says, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. This
is peace with God based on righteousness. Who's Christ? The Lord, our righteousness. And he says, yea, the Lord shall,
or he says in verse 11, truth shall spring out of the earth
and righteousness shall look down from heaven. There it is.
The ways of God are the ways of righteousness and peace in
and by the Lord Jesus Christ. If your peace, your sense of
peace, your comfort of peace, your assurance of peace is not
fully and wholly and totally grounded. upon the glorious person
and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm telling you
it's a false piece. Get it out. Get rid of it. You
don't need it. Christ is the way of peace. He's
the only way of peace. He's the way of redemption and
forgiveness, and He's the only one. He's the way of righteousness.
He's the way of salvation and life and glory. And when He says
back here in Jeremiah 6, stand, He means to stand fast. Just
like Paul wrote in Galatians 5 once, stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free. Stand firm in Him. Now here's the second thing.
He says, ask for the old paths. Where is the good way? Now that
word old, let me, let me show you something. Look over in Jeremiah
31, the old paths. Now I know a lot of people claim
to be believing and singing that old time religion. I'm not certain
what they're talking about. I know that Cain's religion is
old, as old as the fall of man, because that's Adam and Eve started
that business with their fig leaf aprons, didn't they? That's
pretty old, isn't it? So if that's your old time religion, get it
out. A lot of people, when they talk about old time religion,
they're just talking about tradition. Well, they don't do it the way
my mom and dad or grandma and grandpa did it. Well, big deal.
If grandma and grandpa did it wrong, what's that good good's
going to do you? Cain had grandchildren, didn't
he? You picture them saying, well, we're going to do it like
grandpa did it. Like Cain? Tradition for tradition's sake
means nothing. That's all it is. Man's traditions. You know, Christ, He admonished
the people for listening to the Pharisees and following the traditions
of men. And yet, it says here, ask for the old paths where the
good way is. Now that word old is the same
word. Look over at Jeremiah 31. Look
at verse 3. It says in verse 3, The Lord
hath appeared of old unto me, Look at Jeremiah 31, 3. The Lord
hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. That word everlasting is the
exact same Hebrew word translated old in Jeremiah 6. Ask for the everlasting path
wherein the good way, wherein is the good way. In other words,
it's not just something old for old's sake, but it's something
that is old everlasting and will never never deteriorate never
fail it is eternal he says I've loved thee with an everlasting
love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee that's what
oh you see this is an old bit asked for the old paths the old
ways what I wasn't talking about we'll go back to eternity when
God, before the foundation of the world, chose a people and
gave them to Christ and put all the conditions and responsibilities
of our salvation upon Him. The eternal covenant of grace,
the old path, that's the everlasting covenant of grace wherein Christ
was set up to be our surety. There's a sure peace in Christ. It's the old gospel, you see.
Paul talked about it. He said that message of Christ
and Him crucified according to the purpose and grace of God
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
Go back to the garden. Even in type and picture, this
way of God, this way of peace was pictured and typified in
the creation of the world. Let there be light. and there's
light. What does the Holy Spirit do
for us when He brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ? Essentially
He speaks, let there be light and the darkness is dispelled.
After the fall of man, when God pronouncing the curses upon man,
upon the serpent and upon the man and upon the woman, remember
when He pronounced the curse upon the serpent, He included
a prophecy And the oldest record of the preaching of the gospel
that we have in the book of God in Genesis 3.15 when he prophesied
and promised the seed of woman who would bruise the serpent's
head. That's Christ. That's the old path. He is the
old path. Go back to Abel. Abel brought
the blood of the land. Enoch walked with God. Abraham
believed God. Abraham is the grand example.
of God justifying the ungodly. Go back to David, King David,
who said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not
iniquity. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without work. That's the old paths. That'll
never die. It'll never grow old in the sense
of growing stale. I preached this morning out of
Romans 1, 16, 17, and some of y'all have heard that message
for years over and over again, and how many of you came up to
me and said, I'll never get tired of hearing that? That's the kind
of old paths that we want, isn't it? That's the preaching of Christ.
Go back to the old covenant. What did Christ tell the Pharisees?
He said, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life. They are they which testify of me. He says, you have
one who will condemn. He said, I'm not condemning you.
You have one to condemn you, even Moses in whom you trust.
He said, Moses wrote of me. The old paths. It's an everlasting
covenant of grace. Christ's blood is called the
blood of the everlasting covenant. It's the everlasting gospel,
Revelation 14 and verse 6. It's an everlasting righteousness
of infinite value that cannot be taken away, cannot deteriorate,
and cannot fail. Daniel called it that. Old Daniel. That's a long time ago. That's
an old path, isn't it? He said in Daniel 9 and verse
24 that the Messiah would come. He would finish the transgression,
make an end of sin, and bring in what? Everlasting righteousness. That's the kind of righteousness
we need, the righteousness of God in Christ, freely imputed
to us and received by God-given faith. It's an everlasting salvation. Isaiah 45 and verse 17, it talked
about Israel, and I believe he's talking about spiritual Israel
that will be saved with an everlasting salvation. Christ came to bring
in a new covenant, didn't he? Scripture says that. Jeremiah
spoke of that. But that new covenant, what is
it? It's the fulfillment in time of all the old things God purposed
before time. The old paths. The old paths. That new way is the fulfillment
of all the old everlasting things that God purposed in His grace
to bring peace unto His people. Look at it, Jeremiah 6, 16. Ask
for the old paths. Lord, I want your way. I need
Christ. You know, I'll give you an example
of somebody asking for the old paths. That old publican in Luke
chapter 18, standing outside the temple, beating on his breast,
crying, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. He's asking for
the old paths. Jesus, thou son of David, blind
Bartimaeus, he cried, heal me. Save me, O Lord. That's asking
for the old paths. I must have Christ. Ask for the
old paths. Where is the good way? And it's
the only good way. It's the only way of peace. And
then he said, thirdly, walk therein. Now we talked about that in Psalm
1. Those who walk in the ways of the ungodly, the paths, walk
in Christ. Whatever you do, whatever you
think, whatever you say, Let it be by the grace of God in
Christ knowing that there is peace established between you
and God on one basis. What basis? The cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He made peace by the blood of
His cross. There's peace. You didn't make
your peace with God. Christ made it for you. And He
established it. Walk therein. Keep your mind
upon Him. And then he says, lastly, he
said, and you shall find rest for your souls. Look back at
that Isaiah 26 passage that I read. I was just doing a verse search
and found this, and I'd read it so many times before, had
it marked in my old Bible, got a new Bible, so I had to re-mark
it. But listen to what he says here in verse three. Now here's
the rest for us. What is Christ? He is our Sabbath. He's our rest. Come unto me,
all ye that labor in the heavenly laden. I'll give you rest. That's
peace. That's a settled peace. And look
here, this is what this is talking about. This is a prophecy of
Christ. Thou will keep him. God keeps us. in this perfect
peace this peace peace that's that's uh... we can't even hardly
describe how settled this peace is it's an established peace
it's a finished peace god reconciled the sinners by jesus christ and
then sinners reconciled to god and he says that will keep him
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee whose mind is
fixed on christ Looking unto Him, look and live. My brother
lived. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, whose mind is stayed, fixed, and that
mind there, you might see it says thoughts or imagination,
it's the heart. It's the heart fixed, established
on Christ and what He accomplished to bring peace between God and
His people. And he says, what is it to have
your mind stayed on? It's to trust in Him. Rest in
Him. You shall find rest unto your
souls. Paul wrote in Hebrews chapter
4, there is a rest that remaineth for the people of God. What is
that rest? That rest is Christ and Him crucified. Now what a sad conclusion it
is back over here in Jeremiah 6 when people say, well, We will
not walk therein. Do you know that if God left
me to myself, that's what I would be saying even today. I will
not walk therein. God tells Jeremiah his prophet,
I'm going to set watchmen over you saying, hearken to the sound
of the trumpet. Hear the sound. Wrath coming. Justice. What's your only hope? Christ. Run to Christ. But they said, we will not hearken.
If it weren't for the grace of God, that's what we'd be saying
even today. Let me give you this in conclusion. I was listening
to a message by Brother Mahan on this. And I'll just give you
the points. I'm not going to elaborate on
them. But here's what he said. This is good. Number one before
there's peace with God what he was talking about how a man by
the power of the Spirit makes these discoveries Before he can
have before there's peace with God in his conscience, and I
think that's significant because over here in Colossians chapter
315 Let me just read it to you. It says let the peace of God
rule in your hearts and to the which you are also, you are called
in one body and be ye faithful. Now before the peace of God will
rule in your hearts, you're going to make these discoveries. Number
one, before peace with God, a man discovers that to be just before
men is not necessarily to be just before God. They're not
the same thing. Men can speak peace to you. And
you can be just before men, but that has nothing to do with being
just before God. Luke 16, 15, that you are they which justify yourselves
before God, before men, but that which is highly esteemed among
men is an abomination before God. God judges on the basis of His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, before there's peace
with God in our conscience, A person discovers that his past, his
present, and his future and himself are all marred by and full of
sin. It means this. Thirdly, that before there's
peace with God in the conscience, that a person discovers in himself
that he's deserving and has earned nothing but the wrath of God. That's it. And then fourthly,
Before there's peace with God in our conscience, a person discovers
that it's impossible to be justified before God, to have peace with
God before by anything he does, by his works he cannot do it.
No peace with God on the basis of anything I do or stop doing
or any works I have. Man at his best, vanity. And
then lastly, Before there's peace with God established in the conscience,
a person discovers that peace with God is attained and maintained
only in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, based on His blood and
righteousness imputed alone, and there's no other way. No
other way at all. All right.