Title: What’s religion got to do with it?
It wasn’t the first time they had problems on the space station. The space station had four gyroscopes. One of the gyroscopes had been out for a while and then a second one went down. This left NASA scrambling! The situation was becoming critical. The gyroscopes kept the station pointed in the right direction. Without the gyroscopes they couldn’t keep the solar panels oriented toward the sun so the space station would have the power it needed to operate. Without power the station would just drift off into space.
Maybe you feel a little bit like that right now. Maybe you feel like you are drifting? This is something that effects people of all walks of life and every socioeconomic level. The young, the old, those of us who are middle aged, the poor and rich. I was raised in an extremely religious catholic family. I think my parents were even more Catholic than the Pope! I was sent to boarding school where I was taught “religion” by Benedictine monks. But when I went to college I found I was empty and without direction. Oh sure, I believed in God, but I had been taught that He was out there somewhere far, far away.. Was I in for a rude awakening! I had begun attending a university in Virginia and I become very depressed. One night, when I had come to the end of my rope, I went out to the side of a hill that overlooked the university. I sat down on a swing feeling like I just could not go on. I called out to the God that I believed was so very far away and said “God you need to take my life. I can’t go on”. Then the strangest thing happened. A peace that I had never experienced came over me. It was as if someone had said to me “you’re going to be alright”. This one encounter with God changed my life’s direction. You see - the problem was my spiritual gyroscope wasn’t working. I was headed in the wrong direction and I didn’t know it. Sure I was “religious”, but I was still heading for disaster. If the Lord had not reached down to me when He did, I can guarantee you I would not be standing here right now. How about you? Do you feel like God is far, far away? You would like to have peace in your soul, but you don’t know what is wrong with your relationship to God.? Perhaps you have been reaching out to God through “religion” …but what’s religion got to do with it? Today, I want to challenge you to seek a relationship with God on His terms...by walking in the old paths.
The prophet Jeremiah speaks about walking in the old paths in Jeremiah 6:16-20. If you have a Bible I invite you to turn to it as we answer the question: What’s religion got to do with it? Why doesn’t religion always lead to a relationship with God.? The time when Jeremiah was writing this was just before the ancient nation of Babylon invaded the southern kingdom of Israel. When they invaded they destroyed Jerusalem taking the people into captivity. Earlier in their history Moses had led the Children of Israel out of Egypt. Even though God had manifested his power greatly in these events, the children of Israel kept falling back into idolatry. But the God of the Bible, being a merciful and loving God, kept trying to lead them back to Himself. So He sent prophets with messages to warn them. But the people would not listen to those prophets. And this is where prophet Jeremiah enters the picture. The message that God gave him to deliver to Judah was a terrible message of the judgment and destruction that He was going to bring on these, His chosen people. Jeremiah wept as he brought this message of judgment from God. God specifically chose this tenderhearted man to deliver this message of judgment because God wanted the people to see how He felt. He never wanted to judge them! God’s purpose for the nation of Israel was for them to be a representative of Himself before the heathen peoples of the world. When they looked at Israel they were supposed to get an accurate picture of who God was. But because of all the sin and idolatry in their lives they were presenting a false picture of the one true God. Although the Jewish people were very religious their spiritual gyroscope was now broken and they were far, far away from Him. That is the point in history where Jeremiah finds himself in the text we are studying today.
Our text naturally divides into three main points. First, only when you walk in the old paths can you find God’s peace. Second, when you refuse to walk in the old paths you experience God’s judgment. And the third point is when you refuse to walk in the old paths you experience God’s rejection. Won’t you please follow with me as we consider why it is that religion doesn’t always lead to a relationship with God?
In verses 16 & 17 of the text we see that only when you find the old paths will you find God’s peace. No one is born in a right relationship with God. The Bible says we are conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity. A relationship with God is something that you have to look for. In Jeremiah 29:13 the Lord declares that you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. So, lets look first at the process for finding the right path. Then we will look at how you can be sure that the path you have chosen is the right one.
The Lord tells us in verse 16 the first thing we need to do to find the right path. Thus saith the LORD, “Stand ye in the ways” ways literally means to stand at the intersection of the paths, and then He goes on to say “and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way?” So the first thing you should do is stand at the “religious” crossroads and just look around to see which direction everyone is going in. Is He telling people everywhere to look at the smorgasbord of all the world’s religions and choose a little of the best from all of them? No...But it’s a popular idea today. People think that all religions have a little bit of the truth and if you add them all together you will get more of the truth. God is not saying that in this verse. He is speaking to Jews who were only supposed to be doing the things that He had told them to do. But what had happened to them? He tells them to look around and see that they are going in many different spiritual directions. What were all these different paths for? They were only supposed to be going along the old paths. During the days following the events of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush called for a national day of prayer. He urged people of all faiths to pray for America. Interfaith religious services were televised from the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. and from Yankee Stadium in New York. These services included clerics from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. They offered prayers to the God collectively addressed as “the God of Abraham, the God of Muhammad, and the Father of Jesus Christ.” Popular television personality Oprah Winfrey led the service held in New York City and boldly declared that all people pray to the same God. Is Oprah right? Do Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Hindus worship the same God? The Lord had established the nation of Israel and He wanted to lead them in one direction and one direction only! Which direction was it? It was toward Himself. But the Jews were not content with only following the Lord. They began to worship in what were called the high places. The High places were mountain tops or high hills. There they would offer worship and sacrifices to pagan gods, the gods of this world. I am sure at first these pagan practices seemed harmless to the Israelites. Compromise usually starts small, but it started them down a wrong path. There is a saying which goes “when you choose a path, chose it carefully, because eventually you come to the end of it and the end isn’t always pretty. Back in Jeremiah’s time the Jews had come to the end of that path and judgement was coming!
The second thing this verse tells us to do is Ask “which are the old paths?” “Which is the good way?” They were to ask and find out which paths were old and they were to follow them, avoiding all the new paths. The new paths were the ones the Jews wore into the ground on their way up to the high places for pagan worship. In our day it seems like there is some new religion or religious idea popping up all the time. But in this verse the Lord tells the people specifically that they are only to consider the OLD paths. The Lord told the people they were to ask which were the old paths...the old spiritual ways. These old paths all led to the same place. They were the paths that led to the temple in Jerusalem. The temple was the place God had established for the Jews to come into His presence and worship Him. Since Jerusalem was situated somewhere near the centre of the country, the Jews would actually wear paths in the ground as came from all directions toward Jerusalem. These old paths would literally lead them into the very presence of God. As Christians we don’t have these old paths in the ground that we can follow. We do have a have a path to follow though. We have the New Testament where we can find the old paths of the first century Christians. Their beliefs and practices are the old paths that we need to follow.
After you have found the right path, the Lord goes on to say, you are to walk in it. This is actually in the form of a command. Get moving! You are not supposed to just stand in the intersection gawking. You are to start going down the path which leads to a right relationship with God. You should be enthusiastic about it! The word enthusiasm’ itself comes from the word “en-theos” - ‘en’ meaning ‘in’ and “theos” meaning God. The word literally means “in God” or “inspired of God”. This kind of enthusiasm is given to you by the Holy Spirit. It is available to all who have genuinely put their trust in Jesus and truly desire to seek Him by walking in the old paths.
Now that we have looked at the process for finding the right path, let’s see how you can be sure that the path you have chosen is the right one. In verse 16 the Word of God assures us that when you find the right path you will find rest for your souls. You will experience peace with God. Some weeks after I had my first personal encounter with God on the side of that hill, I was drawn to go into a chapel on one end of the campus. I went in and knelt down to pray. An unusual thing happened, it felt so good! Prayer wasn’t supposed to feel good. I was raised Catholic and was taught that prayer is supposed to be hard work. But this time it felt right. It felt good. It was such an experience of peace that I didn’t want to stop. Back in the fall, when I had registered for classes, I had received a little tiny Gideon’s bible. At some point I began to read it. It was then that I discovered that when I was reading the bible I had a great sensation peace come over me, and when I wasn’t reading it I was absolutely miserable. So I was reading it every chance I had...absorbing it like water being soaked into a dry sponge. The Lord had given me His peace and He used His peace to lead me in the direction he wanted me to go in. That same peace confirmed to me that I was headed in the right direction. He manifested His peace to me when I prayed and when I studied His Word. It was just as he promised here in Jeremiah that if I walked in the right path I would find peace for my soul.
There is also a sad note here in verse 16. The Lord made this gracious offer to his people to come to Him by following the old paths, but they said we will not walk therein. God extends the same offer to the world today…but most people still say no I would rather walk another path.
We have seen that when you go down the right path the Lord gives you His peace. In verse 17 the Lord gives us a second way that you can be sure that the path you are on is the right one. When you are going down the right path everything lines up with the Word of God. He said I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. Watchmen were men who would sit on the walls of the city around the clock and watch for the danger of invading armies. If danger was approaching their job was to shout a warning, so people could rise up and defend the city. God’s watchmen were prophets that He sent to the nation of Israel to shout a warning to them! To tell them they had strayed from the old paths and to warn them of God’s judgment. The Prophets did not bring their own message, but they said listen to the trumpet! In the book of Revelation chapter 1, verse 10 - we find out who the voice of the trumpet is. When the apostle John was in exile on the Island of Patmos, he heard a voice behind him ”like the sound of a trumpet”. And he turned and saw the glorified Jesus Christ. The voice of Jesus is the sound of the trumpet. And it is His voice that we hear echoing all the way back here in Old Testament times. Today we are still to listen to the sound of the trumpet. And the Word of God is that sound. It is a faithful guide to warn us when we are off course. This reminds me of an incident that took place years ago at sea. It was a dark night off the Atlantic Coast, and the captain saw a disaster just ahead - a light that was on a collision course with his ship! There wasn’t much time to get the other vessel to change course, so he urgently radioed this message: “Move ten degrees north immediately!” The answer came back, “Move ten degrees south.” Now this was no time for playing navigational games! With some growing aggravation, the captain answered back, “I’m a captain! You adjust your course ten degrees north.” The reply came back: “I’m a seaman second class! Adjust ten degrees south.” At that point, the captain thundered his final word: “I’m a destroyer - adjust your course now!” And the answer came back: “I’m a lighthouse! Adjust your course now!” My friends Jesus Christ said he is the light of the world. Don’t try to change the position of the lighthouse, because it’s not going to move. Use the lighthouse as a fixed point for navigation to guide you in the right direction. Through His word God graciously sends forth a light into a sin darkened world to warn of the danger ahead and to guide you onto the right path. God has given you both His peace and His Word to confirm to you that you are on the old paths that lead to a real relationship with Him.
But again verse 17 ends on sad note because the people answer and say they will not listen. The Bible tells us that God is gracious and kind and slow to anger and He was all of those things with the Children of Israel. But when God’s chosen people made new paths that led to the worship of pagan idols, God’s judgment followed. What’s religion got to do with it? Why doesn’t religion always lead to a relationship with God? Because when you refuse to walk in the old paths you experience God’s judgment! In verses 18 and 19 God proclaims His judgment before witnesses, next he proclaims the type of judgment and then God proclaims the reason for His judgment. First let’s see that God proclaims his judgment before witnesses.
Beginning with verse 18 the Lord says: Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them, hear, O earth. In effect God is calling witnesses to a trial. The first witness He calls is the heathen nations. These were the nations that Israel was supposed to be witnessing to. When the heathen nations looked at the nation of Israel they were supposed to get an accurate picture of who God was. But they had failed in their mission! God does not show favoritism. Now he calls the heathen nations to witness the judgment he will bring upon His chosen people. The next witness He calls is the congregation. These were Jews in Israel that had remained true to the old paths.
The last witness God called is the earth. The God of the Bible does not hide his actions from the scrutiny of any man. Unlike earthly judges He is a righteous judge...and His judgments are out in the open for all to see. And here God calls the whole earth to witness the righteousness of his judgment.
Next God proclaims the type of judgment. In verse 19 he says I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts. The Hebrew word for thoughts could be better translated as schemes. One of the worst things that God could ever do to us is to leave us to our own devices. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to restrain us from sin that we have innately within us. If the Holy Spirit were to stop his work of convicting and turning us from sin we would be like the space station when all the gyroscopes stopped working. It would just spin into outer space somewhere. And we would just plunge headlong deeper and deeper into the depths of sin. This is the horrific, terrible judgment that God proclaimed upon Judah. He will allow them to have their way and receive the fruit of their own evil schemes.
After God proclaimed the type of judgment He didn’t leave us clueless as to why he did it. He also proclaims the reason for His judgment. The reason in verse 19 is that they have not hearkened unto His words, nor to His law, but rejected them. They rejected the very Word of God. The difficulty is that when you reject the Word of God you reject Jesus. Shortly before Jesus was crucified, Jesus went up onto a mountain and was transfigured before three of his disciples. Then Moses and Elijah appeared there with Him. Why did they appear with him? Because Moses represented the Law and Elijah represented the prophets and both the law and the prophets witnessed about Jesus. They wrote about Jesus in the Old Testament and when you reject what they say, you reject Him! Jesus said in Luke 24:44 that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me. Because the children of Israel rejected the words of the prophets and the law - they had in effect rejected the very Messiah that God had sent to save them.
What’s religion got to do with it? Why doesn’t religion always lead to a relationship with God? Because when you refuse to walk in the old paths you experience God’s rejection. In verse 20 the prophet Jeremiah tells us what God rejects and then he also gives us the reason for his rejection. First let’s look at what God will reject when people refuse to walk in the old paths.
God asks what good is your incense to me and your sweet cane? In verse 20, incense is symbolic of prayer. What He is saying here is that their prayers are no good. He won’t listen to them. When you hear the words, “we’re not speaking” you know what they mean. In our culture, to stop speaking to someone is a euphemism that means there has been a breach in the relationship. When you’re “not speaking” to someone, you are estranged from him. You avoid him and try to pretend like he doesn’t exist. When you have chosen to stop speaking to someone, you have chosen to stop maintaining that relationship; you’ve chosen to let it die. That tells you how bad things had gotten for the people of Israel. They had rejected Him and now the relationship was at the point of death. How about you? Where is your relationship with God? Are you speaking? If you aren’t, you can begin speaking today by walking in the Old Paths.
God also states that He has no use for their sweet cane. This cane that he was talking about was not sugarcane, but was more like lemon-grass. It was one of the ingredients in the anointing oil that gave it a beautiful aroma. Oil in the Bible is symbolic of the Holy Spirit and His work within human beings to produce good works. But here the Lord is saying that he has no use for their good works. If you ask people if they are going to heaven so many will answer “I try to live a good life, I do the best that I can” In this verse he makes it plain that your good works are useless if you don’t have a relationship with him.
We have seen that God is not interested in your prayers or your good works if you don’t walk in the old paths and now he is going to tell us why. God goes on to say that their burnt offerings are not acceptable to Him. The burnt offerings were the offerings for sin. They were symbolic of the sacrifice that Jesus would one day make on the cross. But when the children of Israel went after other gods they were in effect saying that the God who set the foundations of the earth is not big enough to save us. We need the help of these other local Gods as well! Their actions showed that they didn’t have faith in the God of Israel. The Bible story is a love story. It is the story of the love of God for man. It tells how God reaches out in love to redeem us. But it is also the story of how man repeatedly rejects God’s love. When the children of Israel refused to put their faith in God, they rejected Him. By doing so they also rejected God’s sacrifice for their sins.
He also says in verse 20 that their sacrifices were not sweet to Him. When you reject Jesus Christ you don’t have peace with God. There is no sense in going through the motions of pretending. That is what the Israelites had been doing. Even though they broke faith with the God of Israel they kept offering these peace offerings as if everything was still okay. That kind of peace offering would be like your worst enemy coming up and handing you a bouquet of flowers when you know they are scheming to murder you. Judas gave Jesus a kiss in the Garden the night he was betrayed. Did that little peace offering bring peace to Judas? No he went out and hung himself. There is no sacrifice or peace offering that you can make that is going to be good enough for God to accept you if you reject his Son
Why doesn’t religion always lead to a relationship with God? Because only when you find the old paths will you find God’s peace. When you refuse to walk in the old paths you experience God’s judgment. And when you refuse to walk in the old paths you experience God’s rejection.
Today we have been talking about these old paths that lead to a real relationship with God. When we consider the old paths the most important thing to realize is, that Jesus said I am the way. Jesus is the path! He said I am the way the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. You see all the old paths in the Old Testament were really leading to Jesus. These old paths led to the temple. The sacrifices performed there symbolized Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. In the same way all the old paths in the New Testament also lead to Jesus. Would you like to have a real relationship with God? You will have to come down the old path that others before you over the many long centuries have walked. You will have to come to Jesus. Maybe you have been out at the intersection of all the worlds religions looking in all directions, but not really sure which direction to go in. Jesus says to you this morning “follow me”. Maybe you are tired and weary and you feel like you just can’t go on. Jesus says come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Maybe you have been following one of the new paths that lead in another direction or worshipping one of the many false idols of this world. Jesus says to you this morning If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Going in a direction that’s different than the world’s is never popular and it is never easy, but the old path is the way that leads to a relationship with God. Won’t you take that path this morning? Perhaps you have had a relationship with the Lord. But you have strayed off course and maybe now it is at the point where you’re not talking anymore. Jesus is that old lighthouse that has guided many a believer back onto the right path. If you feel that the Lord is speaking to you this morning I invite you to come forward and we will pray with you and show you how to find the old paths….and find the salvation that is in none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.. Jesus said him that commeth to me I will in no wise cast out. Come now as we sing….
