Jeremiah 6:16-18 “The Old Paths. Look, Listen and Learn”
8/6/23 A.M.
I like OLD STUFF. I REALLY LIKE OLD TRACTORS. In fact, I had a 1999 model tractor, 4wd, diesel. And I decided to sell it. Why? Well, 1999 is only 24 years old and I found a 1959 International that I REALLY WANTED. Now I’d like to have kept both of them but my wife would ... Well, never mind. But this old International tractor is 40 years OLDER than the one I had, but I like it better.
I like OLD GUNS. I like OLD CARS. I like OLD MOTORCYCLES. And I like OLD MUSIC. You know, MUSIC where you can actually understand the words and it actually has a tune. That’s something I want to ask you. Is RAP actually music when there’s NO TUNE? I’ve always thought of RAP kind of like VULGAR POETRY.
And I like one other thing especially well. I like OLD PEOPLE. That’s why I love YOU ALL so much.
ILLUS: Just before the Memorial Service started there in the Funeral Home Chapel, the undertaker came up to the very elderly widow and asked, "How old was your husband maam?” "98," she replied. "Two years older than me."
"So you're 96," the undertaker commented.
She responded, “I’m so old it’s not hardly worth going home, is it?"
That’s funny but you know, one of the reasons that I like OLD THINGS is because sometimes they are so much BETTER.
And one of the things that is DEFINITELY BETTER is the OLD PATHS. The OLD WAYS. Back when this NATION was a Godly Nation. Back when MORALITY wasn’t something to laugh at.
Now that doesn’t mean that every citizen served God. But what it means is that we were OPENLY a CHRISTIAN NATION. We were FOUNDED on BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES and MOST PEOPLE recognized that. Not everyone SERVED GOD but most people lived according to HIS PRINCIPLES.
TODAY, we still have the same founding DOCUMENTS. I’ve been to the National Archives and I’ve seen them for myself. The Declaration of Independence reads,
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Also, people try to say that the U.S. Constitution never mentions God, which is NOT true. The last paragraph called the Ratification Clause of the United States Constitution reads,
“Attest William Jackson Secretary, done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names.”
By this, not only does the U.S. Constitution mention God, it mentions Jesus by using the Christian Gregorian Calendar. 1787 A.D. Anno Domini. Latin for, “In the year of our Lord.”
So we were founded as a Christian nation. What has happened? Well, it seems that many people, including a lot of Politicians, have left the OLD PATHS behind. They are forging NEW PATHS that are leading to DESTRUCTION.
This morning I want to read from Jeremiah 6, and we’re going to look at three Verses. Verses 16-18.
“Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
18 Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.”
In this passage I want to QUICKLY point out 3 things. I want us to LOOK, LISTEN and LEARN. But before we go any farther let’s go to the Lord in Prayer.
PRAY
In each one of these three Verses, Jeremiah tells the people to do something.
In Verse 16 Jeremiah tells the people to SEE. Well, before they were ever going to SEE anything, they were gonna have to LOOK!!! You know what. It’s actually going to take a little bit of EFFORT. Look what it says there. “Stand ye in the ways.”
In other words, LOOK IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
Try to PAY ATTENTION here!!!
Open your EYES and LOOK!!! And once you LOOK you will see the OLD PATHS. The OLD WAYS. Back when the NATION of ISRAEL served God.
“Hey Israel, do you remember back when we were stuck in Egypt and we cried out to God and He sent Moses to lead us out?
Do you remember when we came to Jericho and we marched around that city and the WALLS came tumbling down?
Do you remember back when this NATION honored God? Back when this NATION put God first?”
And Jeremiah says THAT is what they need to go back to.
And I think we as AMERICANS today need to LOOK BACK at where we came from. If we will do that, we will SEE the OLD PATHS. We won’t see a PERFECT NATION. We certainly won’t see PERFECT POLITICIANS.
We will see a country that certainly made MISTAKES.
We will see a country that treated the Native Americans TERRIBLY.
We will see a country that OWNED slaves but then freed them.
You will see other wrongs in this country.
But at the same time you will see a NATION that, even with our problems, we HONORED GOD by teaching about Him and praying to Him in our PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
We PLACED the 10 Commandments on our Courthouse Walls.
We sent MISSIONARIES all over the world to teach others about Him.
We have helped more people who have endured war and tragedy. We’ve helped feed the hungry from Africa to all over the world.
Can we go back to that? Can we LOOK BACK to the Old Paths and go back?
I HOPE SO. So in Verse 16, we see Jeremiah telling the people to LOOK.
II. Then Verse 17 starts off with the word “ALSO”. In ADDITION to them LOOKING, they needed to LISTEN. Jeremiah tells the people that God had put a WATCHMAN over them. He says, HEARKEN, Listen to the sound of the trumpet. Not only did the people need to LOOK, they needed to LISTEN.
Back then God used PROPHETS like Jeremiah to BRING the MESSAGE to the PEOPLE. Men who would CRY OUT to the people. They were like WATCHMEN standing in the Tower, Blowing a trumpet, giving WARNING when enemy was coming.
But here’s the key. They had to LISTEN. And how does Verse 17 end? “But they said, We .... will .... not .... hearken.”
They REFUSED to LISTEN. They REFUSED to take ACTION. They said, “I know Jeremiah told us to LOOK at the Old Paths. I know he told us to LISTEN to the WATCHMAN who was giving us WARNING. But WE DON’T WANT TO!!!”
You know what. It’s ONE THING to be IGNORANT. UNLEARNED. Never been taught. But it’s a whole nother thing to be WILLINGLY IGNORANT!!! The word that comes to my mind is the modern day word STUPID!!! 2 Peter Chapter 3 talks about people who are STUPID. Verses 3-7.
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
There’s a lot of LIES out there. Most of the MEDIA LIES. Most POLITICIANS LIE. Listen, if you get down to where the rubber meets the road MOST PEOPLE LIE.
But if you want truth, you can find it. This BOOK right here is TRUTH. There’s NO LIES right here. READ IT!!! Ask the LORD to help you UNDERSTAND IT. Don’t be WILLINGLY IGNORANT. Don’t be STUPID.
Listen, the people back in Jeremiah’s day, didn’t have the BENEFIT of the Holy Spirit of God as we do. Jesus told us in John 14:26,
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us,
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
The Word of God is a Spiritually Discerned Book. We Study and Read it using the Holy Spirit of God to understand it. But we have to be willing to LISTEN.
ILLUS: Have you ever heard of SELECTIVE HEARING? It’s a DISEASE children are inflicted with. My kids sometimes BATTLED this TERRIBLE DISEASE. They only heard what they wanted to hear. Every once in a while HUSBANDS and WIVES have the same problem. I heard about a fellow who called the doctor. He was worried that his wife was losing her hearing. The doctor asked him how bad it was and the old fellow didn’t really know how to tell him. So the doctor told him how to determine it. Speak softly to her and keep taking a step closer until she hears you.
So the fellow waited until his wife was cooking dinner and gave it a try. From ten feet away he said, “Hi honey, what’s for supper?” He heard nothing.
He moved up to 6 feet away and asked the same question, “Hi honey, what’s for supper?” He heard nothing.
Finally at two feet away he tried again and his wife turned around and said, “For the THIRD TIME, we’re having ROAST BEEF!!!”
Sometimes I wonder if we have SELECTIVE HEARING when God speaks to us. We just HEAR what we want to HEAR. We have everything ALL PLANNED OUT. We’re planning on doing this and then we’re going to do that and all we need is for God to bless it. So we PRAY for God’s HELP. We PRAY for God’s LEADERSHIP. We PRAY for God’s BLESSINGS. But He’s NOT GONNA DO IT. WHY? Because we won’t LISTEN. He has other plans for us.
He speaks to us through His Word. He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit working in our Hearts. And He speaks to us through others. But we have to LISTEN!!!
So God wants us to LOOK. He wants us to LISTEN.
III. And the last thing Jeremiah mentions here is found in Verse 18. “Therefore hear, ye nations, and KNOW, O congregation, what is among them.”
He wants them to KNOW and the only way to KNOW is to LEARN IT!!! LOOK, LISTEN and LEARN. And what does he want them to know? “What is among them.” Or you might say, what is going to HAPPEN to them. And the ONLY WAY to KNOW it is to LEARN it.
ILLUS: I was thinking about the old saying. “Now we can do this the EASY way or the HARD way.”
These Israelites were fixin to LEARN something and they were gonna learn it the HARD WAY.
Look on down here through Chapter 6.
In Verse 19 Jeremiah tells them, “I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts”
Verse 20, God was no longer going to accept their offerings.
Verse 21 is so sad. “the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.”
Look at Verses 22 and 23.
“Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.
23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.”
God was warning the people through Jeremiah the PROPHET. They didn’t have to go through all of this. They could have STOPPED. LOOKED, LISTENED and LEARNED. They could have went back to the OLD PATHS. They could have REPENTED and went back to serving the TRUE and LIVING GOD. If they would have, all of these terrible things wouldn’t have happened. BUT .... they wouldn’t HEARKEN. We know from the Word of God and from History that the Babylonians came down and WIPED OUT the entire nation, slaughtered thousands, and took thousands more as captives. It all happened in 597 B.C.
Folks, it’s not enough to LOOK and see something and then LISTEN and hear something. We have to KNOW something. We have to LEARN. We have to PUT it into PRACTICE.
ILLUS: As a pastor, one of the most frustrating things for me is to bring something from the WORD of GOD, NOT MY OPINION, NOT my own PERSONAL PREFERENCE, it’s in the BIBLE, easy to understand and I bring it on a Sunday Morning.
Then on Monday morning I see someone that was there DOING the EXACT THING I preached against. If it’s in the Word of God it’s NOT ENOUGH to LOOK at it , LISTEN to it, and even LEARN it. We better put it into PRACTICE. The Word of God can only change our lives if we LET IT.
Jeremiah says we need to LEARN what is among them. In other words you BETTER LEARN what is COMING. What is going to HAPPEN.
I wish all of those up in Washington D.C., and all of those around our country, could LEARN and REALIZE what is going to HAPPEN if we don’t go back to the Old Paths.
Psalms 9:17, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
CLOSING: I mentioned at the beginning of my message that even our constitution included God. The Ratification Clause states, “The Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven.”
Many secularist and atheists have said that putting that in our constitution was only a CUSTOMARY thing to do. It was just a way to give the date. But that’s not true. During this time many countries around the world were doing away with God, and France was leading the way in SECULARISM. During the 1700’s they were the GREATEST POWER in the world. But they forsook God. One of their biggest influencers was Voltaire. He was an Enlightenment writer, a Philosopher and a Historian.
He HATED CHRISTIANITY and JUDAISM. Never-the-less he was LOVED and CELEBRATED in France. I bring this up because France did away with the Christian Calendar and used the French Revolutionary Calendar. It’s main purpose was to remove all religious and royalist influences from the calendar. They wouldn’t have put, “In the Year of our Lord.” From that point on they began to DECLINE. During both WW1 and WW2, they were occupied by Germany. They were WEAK THEN and they are even WEAKER TODAY. They did eventually go back to the Christian Gregorian Calendar but it was too late. Today they are not a world power and they never will be again. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
In some ways, I don’t want to go back to the Old Ways. I really like A/C. Don’t you? We didn’t have it when I was a kid.
I kind of like Cell Phones. Man they are so convenient. Do you remember your teacher trying to get you to learn your Multiplication Tables. She said, “You better learn these, because you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket.” Boy was she wrong. We all carry computers around in our pocket and they happen to also be a Cell Phone.
Cars are so comfortable. I remember my dad talking when I was a kid. He said, “When you’re on a trip, if you can make 500 miles a day, you’re doing good.” Back then that was true.
Now-a-days, with the Interstates, higher speed limits and comfortable cars, I can make a thousand miles a day. Anymore, it’s not work to drive a car.
Yeah, it’s nice to live in the modern day world. So much is easier but one thing hasn’t changed. That’s the OLD PATHS.
If this NATION SURVIVES it will only be because we TURNED BACK to HIM. 2 Chronicles 7:14,
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Another thing that hasn’t changed in 2000 years. That’s the WAY of SALVATION. We’re stilled SAVED by Grace through Faith. We’re stilled SAVED by putting our TRUST in JESUS. Our SINS are still WASHED AWAY by His blood that He shed on the Cross of Calvary.
What about you today? Will you sing with me, “Give Me that Old Time Religion. Give Me that Old Time Religion. Give Me that Old Time Religion. It’s Good Enough for Me.”
“It was Good for our Fathers ...”
“It was Good for our Mothers ...”
“It will Take us all to Heaven ...”
Let’s Pray
