Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 6. Jeremiah chapter 6. Out of respect for the Word of God, let's all stand for the reading of one verse of Scripture. Actually, two verses. We'll also be looking at Jeremiah chapter 1 for a few moments and making references to others. I want to speak tonight on the message, the old paths. The old paths. Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse 16. The Bible says, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. Also I set watchmen over you, saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not hearken." Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that you'd open the truth of this passage up to us. Lord, it's a hard message when we live in a society and day and age in which we live, Lord, to take a stand for right and righteousness, to lift the banner high. Lord, I pray that you'd help me to preach the truth. Lord, I pray that you'd give me utterance. And Lord, the only way that that would come is if you filled me with thy Holy Spirit. And Lord, I pray that I would be filled. And Lord, I pray that Your people would be filled. And Lord, that Your name and Your Word would be honored in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen. You may be seated. Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. He is known to have served in what is referred to, if you want to look at his life day in which he lived and ministered, you should make reference to the last part of 2 Kings. It's made reference as the divided kingdom. You have the ten tribes of the north, and then you also have the tribe of Judah to the south. Jeremiah served under essentially five kings. He served under Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. Dr. Moorhead writes, it was Jeremiah's lot to prophesy at a time when all things in Judah were rushing down to the final and mournful catastrophe, when political excitement was at its height, when the worst passions swayed the various parties, and the most fatal counsels prevailed, to see his own people, whom he loved with the tenderness of a woman, plunge over the precipice into the wide, weltering ruin. Baxter says that Jeremiah was the prophet of Judah's midnight hour. This is an important book for us. I want us to just notice some things in regards to Jeremiah being a prophet from Jeremiah chapter 1. It was not easy in this day in which Jeremiah lived, and it's not easy, I guess, in any period of time to be a prophet or a preacher for the Lord Jesus Christ. But he needed the assurance of some things as he would take this message, these prophecies, to the people of Judah. First of all, we see in this passage, by way of introduction, that he was God-called. This was not a job that he took upon himself. It wasn't a position that he said, you know, I think this would be good if I could be a prophet for the people of Judah, that I might be able to hold a banner up. And you'll see later that it was not a popular position at all, but he was God called in chapter 1, verses 4 and 5. It says, Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." So we see that he was God-called. And I think that's really the tall-tale ingredient for anyone who wants to be considered in full-time service, someone who wants to preach the gospel, be it an evangelist, be it a pastor, be it a missionary. I believe that they must have the call of God on their life. Yes, it's true. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, it says that if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. And then it lists the qualifications. But by and large, it also lets us know that not only must the desire be there, but I believe that God places the desire in the life of a God-called prophet, a God-called preacher. So we find here that Jeremiah in chapter 1 was God-called. I also see that he was God-equipped. Let's read in verse 6 of chapter 1. Then said I, O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. Isn't that just like any one of us when God comes and tells us that, hey, there's something that He would like to use us for? Some word that He wants us to say? Some position He wants us to fill? We say, I can't do this. There's no way. You remember Moses? When God came to him and said, look, I want you to lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt, and he said, I stammer, I stutter, I can't do this job, there's no way. And yet, God had to remind him that he was the great I Am, and that He would not only call him, but He would equip him for the task that he was given to do. And that's something that we have to keep in mind, none of us, As we work in full-time service, none of us feel equipped enough, we feel able enough, we feel worthy enough to do the work that God's called us to do. But when God calls us, He calls us, amen? And when He does call us, He will equip us, and we find that evidence in Jeremiah's life. I also see that he didn't have his own message. He didn't have just the message that would sound good to the ears of the people. He had a God-ordained message. In verse 9 we find, it says, Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. It wasn't Jeremiah's message, but it was the message, the words of Almighty God. And praise the Lord, we have the Bible. We have the Word of God. We don't have to come to church and just hear the opinions and the doctrines or the intuitions of man. We can hear the Word of God and we can have it expounded upon. Nehemiah chapter 8 gives us the example of a preaching service how the people came together, how the Word of God was read distinctly, and then the preachers got up and made the sense of the Scripture. Amen? That's preaching. That's what we do Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and other times that we have special services. But Jeremiah had a God-ordained message. I also find this, that he also had a God-blessed ministry. Let's look at verses 17 down to verse 19. You know, we've got to understand this, and as you look at the context here and you see this, we think of the blessings of God as buildings, and yes, those are blessings to be sure. We think of the blessings of God as good crowds, and yes, those are blessings to be sure. We think of the blessings of God as having a good offering. Those are blessings to be sure. But yet you can have a God-blessed ministry even if you don't have the peripheral, even if you don't have the response that you would like to see. And we find that Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, was a man sent from God, doing the will of God, and yet he did not have the external blessings of God, but he did have the blessings of Almighty God, and he's been enjoying them for about 3,000 years. Amen? It says in verse 17, Thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For behold, I have made thee this day a defense city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee." Notice that, as he would take the message of the Word of God, I mean the God-ordained message. I'm talking about preaching the Word of Almighty God. It says that the leaders of the land would fight against Him. That even the preachers and priests of the land would fight against Him. And the people would not like His message. And yet the Lord said, I have made thee today a defenced city. And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee. Because the Lord says, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee. And that's really what we have to keep in mind, and no matter whether we consider ourselves as a layman in the church or full-time servant of the church, whether we find ourselves pastoring, whether we find ourselves on the mission field, whether we find ourselves as deacons in the church, or whatever area of service, hey, the Lord is with us. And when He's called us, no matter what the outward response is, as we're faithful to Him, He will defend us, He will protect us, and we will experience His blessings. Amen? So we find that Jeremiah was God-called, he was God-equipped, he had a God-ordained message, and he also had a God-blessed ministry. Now, the nation of Judah was in a terrible backslidden state at this time. And Jeremiah is preaching against the sin and the perversion and the lukewarmness of his day. And in chapter 6, we come upon Jeremiah's second prophecy concerning Judah. And in this particular prophecy in chapter 6, God is going to judge their sin. And he's sending out a warning, but when God sends out a warning, it's not just so that He can make people quake, so that He can cause them to run in fear and hide from His presence. It's so that they can come face to face with their sin, so that they can come face to face with their lukewarmness. So that they can see that they have a need and they need to get close to God. They need to get right with God. They need to repent of their sin. And that God will restore and He will bring them as in their former state. Let's go now to Jeremiah chapter 6 once again, and let me read verse 16. Thus saith the Lord, standing in the ways and sea, and asked 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. Notice that. They heard the message, but they made a decision. We're not going to listen to what Jeremiah has to say. See, that's the problem we have with preaching today. We have a problem today because when a man gets up behind the pulpit and we don't like to hear what he says, we immediately just say, well, that's just a man. I follow Christ. But God has chosen in this dispensation of time to use the foolishness of preaching to help us to understand what He wants from each and every one of us. To expound upon His Word. That's our job, that's our mission as pastors and preachers of the Gospel of the whole Council of God. But notice the decision of the people. Jeremiah, obviously, I've shown you from the Word of God. He was not preaching His Word. And yet the people, when they heard the Word of God, they said, We are not going to walk therein. And in verse 17, they say again, Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. You see, a watchman was to sound the alarm of a pending danger. That, hey, there was an enemy near the gates. Hey, there was an armed troop headed that way to try to conquer and take the city. And so they, as watchmen, were to walk to and fro on the walls. And when they'd see that danger, sound the alarm, alert the troops, so that defense could be made and safety could be maintained for the city. But notice what it says here, even though God did in His mercy. Send those watchmen to the nation of Judah, it says, but they said, we will not hearken. So here Jeremiah is, can you imagine? He preaches and he preaches and he cries and he preaches and he cries and he sounds the alarm and they say, We're not going to do what you tell us to do. We're not going to hear the message that you have. Just be quiet and leave us alone, is the message that we have from the land of Judah. But notice the admonition here in this passage of Scripture in chapter 6 and verse 16. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and notice what they're to ask for. They're to ask for the old paths. The old paths. And I think tonight I just want to center our attention that we need as a congregation and as a people of God to ask for the old paths. You know, when hiking, you always look for the old paths, don't you? You know, I noticed that when we went fishing and we would stop at a bank somewhere and we wanted to take a hike in the woods, we'd look for a path. We'd look for a well-worn path. Just before you go through the fast water up about Pointe du Bois, you have a little outbuilding there where a lot of boats stop and they'll clean the fish. Sometimes they camp there on that little peninsula. As you begin to go through the fast water, you know what I'm talking about, guys? They go on the retreat. And as you walk back through there, you'll notice that there are well-worn paths all along that area. And so, when I would take and walk along the woods there, I would look for a path. I wouldn't try to blaze my own trail. I would look for a well-worn path. You know, when Brenda and I go home to visit Tennessee, And we drive down the road. You know what I enjoy doing? I mean, like, it used to be from Franklin Road Baptist Church to the Bill Rice Ranch. There's seven miles there on Highway 96, headed towards Franklin. And you would just see farm after farm after farm. And now there's housing development after housing development after housing development. And when we travel down there, though, I like to hit some of the back roads and just sort of look to see if, hey, some of the old houses are still there. Some of the old roads haven't been touched yet. I like going those old paths, the old route that I would take to go from the ranch to the Sower of the Lord. The old path, yes, they've got the big six-lane highway going there from the interstate into Murfreesboro, but I like to take that old winding road, that one-and-a-half, two-mile road that goes from the interstate to the Sower of the Lord, and just look and see how much has remained the same. The old paths. Amen? You know, when out for a stroll or a time of meditation, you look for an old path. One that's tried and proven, so that the distractions are few and that you can keep your mind on the musing, on the situation, or maybe just your walk with the Lord. And I want us to see some things tonight regarding the old paths. And just notice four things tonight. Number one, the old path is a well-worn, well-traveled path. In other words, people have gone on before us. You see, and I'm talking in the context of our Christianity. I'm talking about in the context of the fundamental movement. I'm talking about in the context of living a separated life. I'm talking about walking the old path. And you notice the Lord told Jeremiah that he was to encourage the people to ask for the old paths. And we have a lot of people today seeking a new way. They want a new music. They want a new message. They want a new order of service. They want new, new, new. And here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, Jeremiah is told by God Himself to go and tell the people that they need to ask for the old paths, the tried and proven paths. And you know Moses, he walked an old path. You want to walk in the way of Moses? Well, to walk in the path that Moses walked, you can't walk a new path. You've got to walk in His path. You've got to follow the trail, the footprints that we find in the sands of time that He placed there. It's the old paths. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 11. I begin reading just in the interest of time. I'm going to go right into the reading. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the sons of Pharaoh's daughter. choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." My friend, we need to endure as seeing Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who right now to our eyes of faith is invisible. Amen? But we notice He was willing, like Jeremiah was willing, not to be afraid of what the king would say and what others would say. He said, look, my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is far more important than the applause and the praise and the accolades of man, be they king or peasant. And we find that right there. And you say, well, Moses didn't even live in the time of Christ. Are you going to say that God's a liar? Are you going to say that the Word's not true? It tells us right here in Hebrews chapter 11 that Moses understood the coming anointed of God, and His name is Jesus Christ. Amen? It says it right there. It says, by faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, when the Egyptians, a saying to do, were drowned. Moses walked an old path. I mean a path that's well worn. I mean a path that's well traveled. I think of the Apostle Paul, and I find that he walked the same path that Moses walked. We find as he would recount in the book of Acts, and he would preach the messages of Acts chapter 9, and we'd preach the message of Acts chapter 22, and he'd preach the sermon there in Acts chapter 26. We find that he preached and he uplifted the Old Testament saints, and he put himself as well as connecting them with the doctrine and the teaching of God of the Old Testament. Amen? And we find that we need to walk in the old paths. We need to ask for the old paths. We need to walk therein, and we need to hearken to the old paths. Amen? Quit seeking the new. Quit trying to have some new thing. And you know, some of us are hitting that midlife time of life. Where we're a little bit disenchanted with maybe the status quo. We're a little bit coming to grips with the fact that we're not getting any younger. And it won't be too long to where, hey, we're going to be looking at retirement and so on. And we're beginning to say, well, look what I've not done. some dreams and aspirations that we've had, we've not seen them come to fruition, and if we don't do something, if we don't make a change and we begin to blame our environment, we begin to blame our mates, we begin to blame our children, we begin to blame our work, we begin to blame our church, we begin to blame all sorts of individuals and circumstances and things for our disenchantment. We're looking for something new and we have to be careful that in the quest to find that fulfillment, that we grab for the new and we leave the old path and open ourselves up to tribulation and trials and troubles and sorrows of life and the judgment of Almighty God as we see Judah as they were headed towards that period, as Moorhead said, of great catastrophe. And that's what awaits us. But we need to stick with the old paths, like Moses, like Paul, like Spurgeon in his day. We find there towards the close of the 1800s, we find that Spurgeon, he had to take a stand for the cause of Christ, known as the downgrade controversy. And Spurgeon took a stand even though preachers of a lifetime rose up against him and they tried to undermine his ministry and so on. He stood the course. He stood firm. He walked with God and preached fearlessly. And today he's known in our circles and even New Evangelical circles as the prince of preachers and his books are literally selling by the thousands on a weekly basis throughout the world. We have Lester Roloff, who was a mender of broken lives, and Lester Roloff, I've shared this before, where I remember where it said about the Southern Baptist Convention in the Dallas, Texas area, how that they had owned a strip mall. And in that strip mall, it was found out that there was a radio station in the strip mall, and there was also some other businesses, and one of those businesses was a liquor store. Lester Roloff got up on his 15-minute broadcast and he railed against the liquor crowd. He railed against the liquor business. And so what happened is, is the radio station kicked him off. They said, we're not going to have your program anymore on our station. And they replaced him. So Lester Roloff, not to be undone, he said there's more than one way to skin a cat. He went out, talked to some businessmen. He said, look, I'd like to buy a radio station. Would you help me? And so he raised the money, he walked in there, and bought that radio station. He kicked out the management, kicked out the liquor store, and then he put himself on the radio station, and then he put it up for sale, sold it with the stipulation that he was never to be removed from the airwaves. Folks, he was looking for the old paths. He was willing to take a stand for righteousness. Where are the men and women of God that are willing, with that kind of tenacity, to stand against the evils of their day and not be afraid of their faces? Amen? We have so many people capitulating today to the pressures of men and to the status quo, and we want to be accepted by the world. Since when does God's people ever, are they ever admonished to be accepted by the unbelieving crowd? We're to come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. Jack Hiles lifted the banner high for soul winning. And I'm so thankful that when I lived in Germany and we received a copy of the Sword of the Lord at that time on a week-by-week basis, that we would get those messages, those three messages every week. And what a motivator to look out for the souls of men and women and boys and girls and to take a stand. And Hiles was a prime motivator to do what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it. Dr. Rice, of course, As the Sword of the Lord promotes, and as we just finished that conference, and as we get the copies of the sword, and as we look forward next month to having a sword conference ourselves, and having Dr. Raymond Barber back, look forward to that. And I talked to him this past week, and he's looking forward to being here. And Dr. Rice just lifted up the banner for revival and soul winning. I was telling Jacob and Brother Frank and George about how Dr. Rice, he took an old gospel tent and went to Decatur, Texas. And there in Decatur, Texas, he rented a plot of ground there in town. He set up his gospel tent. He got some men handy, and they made some pews, some benches. They printed up some handbills, and he went all throughout that community passing out flyers. He preached for one week, and preached for two weeks, and preached for three weeks, and preached for four weeks, and preached for five weeks, preached for six weeks, and at the end of six weeks, there was a multitude of people who had trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, were scripturally baptized, and today, to this very day, in the year 2003, the Galilean Baptist Church shines as a testimony to a man who would face opposition and criticism and say, look, God has called us to do a task, and we're going to do it. And that church eventually grew to over 1,700 in attendance, and that's where he also started the Sword of the Lord publication, and that got to be such a ministry that he eventually left the pastorate and took that on full time. Praise the Lord that we walk in the paths of men and women of God who have made the way clear for us. that we don't have to second guess the path, that we don't have to say, well, should I go here or should I go there? Or, what's the best way for me to go? We can walk in their paths. Follow me as I follow Christ, Paul said. And we can follow them as they followed Christ. Amen? That's the beauty of the Word of God, that He has placed people in our lives to help lead us down that pathway. Amen? We need to ask for the old paths. Do you see it? Do you see the old path? Don't always be looking for the new. You know, I like the tried and proven, don't you? You know, if a surgeon has to cut on my body, I don't want the rookie doctor. You know? I don't want the imported doctor. I want the doctor who knows what he's doing. I want the doctor who's trained and has some experience, and if he's going to go slice it on me, I want to know that they know what they're doing. Amen? And my friend, when we have to walk in the paths of the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to know that those who've gone on before know what it's all about. And praise God, we have example after example after example of men and women. Hebrews chapter 11, read it sometime, and you'll find that they were walking the old paths. And we need the old paths. Amen? You know, when we have problems in life, I want the one who knows, not the one who thinks. I like the track record, not just the clean slate of inexperience. Amen? Well, I'll go see so-and-so. They've never handled anything like this, and so they've never made any mistakes. So I think I'll go to them. Oh, not me. If I have a problem, I want a solution to my problem. What is wrong with this? If I have a car problem, I want to go to Henry and say, Henry, what's my problem? I don't want him to tell me, well, I've never done this before. I want to know that he knows what he's doing. Amen. Praise the Lord. The old paths. The old path is well-worn. It's well-traveled. Number two, the old path is free of obstacles. Isn't that true? The old path is free of obstacles. You know, we enjoy the freedoms we have because others have paid the price to secure our freedom. The very reason we can stand and do what we're doing tonight. The very reason we can enjoy the freedoms that we have as Canadians is because people have paid, and in some cases, the ultimate price of shedding their very blood on foreign soil so that we can have this freedom. The old path is free of obstacles. I didn't say it was easy. I didn't say there wasn't bloodstains along the way. But I'm saying the old path is free of obstacles. I also see that the old path is free from the obstacles of unequal yokes. We have the later life of Solomon, where it says that his wives, he had 700 of them, 300 concubines, that's wives in training. He had, you know, all these wives. And it says that they turned his heart from the Lord, his God, to where he got to serve the other gods. So we have an unequal yoke. You have a righteous man yoking up with an unrighteous individual, and you find a watering down, a mixing down, if you please. The Bible says that we're not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. I invite your attention to 2 Corinthians 6, and pardon my voice. In 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship have righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion have light with darkness? And what concord have Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. And then God says, I will receive you. Amen? We're not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. In other words, we should never, and God forbid that we here should ever, but we should never get together in religious causes, no matter how right it seems with those who preach another gospel, which those who compromise the clear teachings of the Word of God. The ends do not justify the means. We don't believe in situational ethics that says that, hey, as long as good comes out of it, it's okay to do. That's a Robin Hood mentality. I mean, that's like, hey, I'll steal from the rich so I can give to the poor. I mean, hey, we're putting food on the poor man's table, but we're thieves, we're robbers, we're breaking into houses and so on. That's not right. Any clear-thinking individual would say, there's something wrong with that picture. And yet we'll take that same line of reasoning into the church and say, well, let's do it this way, and if the methodology is wrong, then hey, as long as people get saved, as long as people are blessed, As long as people have good crowds and so on, then it must be all right. No, it's not all right. The ends do not justify the means. The well-worn path, the old path, is free of obstacles, the obstacles of unequal yokes. It's free from the obstacles of compromising yokes. We have the Gibeonites, of course, you know the story, I've recounted it recently, where they dressed up in old clothes, got moldy bread, and put dust all over themselves to make it look like they'd traveled a long journey, and yet they were dwellers right there in the land of Canaan. And of course, we know the account there where they were a thorn in the side of the nation of Israel all their days because of that compromising yoke of Joshua. Revelation chapter 3 verses 15 and 16 says, I know thy works, Jesus says, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Let me ask you a question. When you think of your Christian life, being cold or hot or lukewarm, where are you? Are you hot? Are you cold? Are you lukewarm? Very sobering passage of Scripture. And you notice the message of Jeremiah is we're to ask for the old paths, the old ways. And we're to say, look, I want to walk in them. I want to hearken to them. I want to do the will of God. I want to follow the Word of God. But the old path is free from the obstacles of compromising yokes. In other words, we ought to seek to give the clearest testimony we can. Amen? The Bible in the New Testament talks about us being salt. We're the salt of the earth. If the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It tends forth good for nothing but to be cast out and be trodden under the foot of men." And sad to say, for many people's Christianity, that's about the worth of it. The world just trods it out because we've lost our savor. We make no difference. We don't preserve anything. We're not working at being an antiseptic on anything as salt is. I mean, we just have lost our savor. The Bible says, ye are the light of the world. And we ought to let our light so shine that what others may see our good works and glorify our Father which is in heaven. They may not look up into the starry night and give God glory, but by looking at your life, by looking at my life, they ought to say, Glory to God! Glory to God! Wow, what a change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart. Amen? Since Jesus came into my heart. I like this, the brighter the light, the clearer the way. You know, when we had that blowout last Sunday night, well, Monday morning, around one o'clock in Wisconsin somewhere, you know, we had a flashlight. It was good we had a light. When that tire blew, the old hubcap went rolling off into the high grass somewhere. And so after we put that little donut on there, the kind you can't eat, and we backed up. And as they had the flashlight and they were walking along the ditch, I was backing up on the interstate, on the shoulder, of course. And we were trying to shine that bright light. And you know, the brighter the light, the clearer you could see, the more you could see. And folks, that's what we're seeking to do when we preach holiness, when we preach right living. It's not so that we can create some Phariseeism. It's not so that we can get people to follow a certain standard as such. We are seeking to give the clearest and brightest light that we possibly can, because as He is holy, then as we are holy, we're more like Jesus, we're pleasing in His sight, and then the world will be drawn to the light. That's why we do what we do. But the old path is free from the obstacles of compromising yokes. We also find that the old path is free from the obstacles of an improper Bible. I like the old chorus, the B-I-B-L-E. Yes, that's the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E. God's Word shall never fail, never fail, never fail. God's Word shall never fail. No, no, no. Amen? It's not the New American Standard Version. It's not today's English version. It's not the Good News for Modern Man. It's not the Living Bible. It's not the New King James. It's not the New International Version. I believe that the preserved Word of God for the English-speaking people is the King James Version of the Bible or the King James Bible. I was talking to a preacher recently, having coffee with him, and he said that when someone had listened to the sermon that I gave not too long ago on the TV, that I made them mad because I uplifted the King James Bible and I made light of all the others. I like the book by Mickey Carter. And the title of that book is, Things That Are Different Are Not The Same. How can you have the New American, and the Today's English, and the Good News for Modern Man, and the Living Bible, and the NIV, all these others, some 300 English translations, and more yet to come out on the presses, how can they all read differently and all be the Word of God? It can't be. And you notice that the King James Version of the Bible seems to be the standard by which all other Bibles are compared to. You never have them say, oh, this is better than the New American Standard. Oh, no, they always say, this is better than the King James. And then another version comes out and says, this is better than the King James. Why is there such an attack on the Word of God? You erode the authority of God's Word, and then you set the individuals up for sin. Isn't that what happened in Genesis chapter 3? Yea, have God said. And now we have a people saying in Bible study somewhere, well, what does your Bible say? Well, my Bible doesn't say that. It says it's over here. And everybody's just throwing around their opinions of men and opinions of scholarship rather than saying, thus saith the Lord. And we need to get back to thus saith the Lord. And you check it out. You check history out. In the English-speaking world, the revival movement, there was one Bible that was lifted high, and it was the King James Bible. You check it out, even today in Asia, where revivals are sweeping the land. I'm talking about the Philippines, where Carolyn's from. I'm talking about in India. I'm talking about there in the Asian countries where revival is breaking out, churches are being established. This book is being held up. It's not all the versions of the past. They come in later, just like the liberals. The liberals don't go in and just start churches. What they try to do is key in on those who are already saved. They key in on strong other churches and try to lead people astray after them. That's the way the devil works. He doesn't do his own work. He's in the destroying business. He seeks to kill and what? Destroy. That's what he seeks to do. And we better wake up in this matter of our Bible. And we need to stick to our Bible. You talk, even the liberal or the new evangelical preachers today who use the other versions, you check them out on the TV. You check them out on the radio. When they're reading the scripture, they may read from their other version. But I tell you what, thy word have I hid mine heart that I might not sin against God. I tell you what, when they begin to quote scripture, what do they quote? King James Bible. Sure do. They sure do. Folks, you've got a Bible. And it's an authoritative Bible. And don't let anybody tell you otherwise. And I'd much rather, I've got a book called The Translators Revived, and it goes through the background and the history of all of the scholars that were involved in the translation of the King James Bible. No, we don't believe in a second work of inspiration. We believe in God's preservation, where He said that He would preserve His Word from this generation and forever. Amen? And my faith is in the keeping power of God Almighty, not just in my salvation, but in His Holy Word. The same book that says that I'm saved forever also says that He's going to preserve His Word forever. And so it's got to be somewhere, and I happen to believe it's right here. And those translators, I'd much rather believe in the scholarship of those individuals and in the God of heaven than the scholars we have today. Those men of the King James era in the 1600s, late 1500s, 1600s, they were reading and studying the Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic and the languages, Latin, of their day when they were five and six and seven and eight years of age. And here we have it as a three-hour semester course at most Bible colleges. And if you really want to go on, you can take your two years of study in a college somewhere and then go on to seminary, along with about 50 or 60 other credit hours that you have to take. Hey folks, this book is sufficient. The problem is not how easy it is to read and understand. The problem is living what we do understand. And the natural man doesn't receive the things of God, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. The unsaved man will never understand Scripture. And the disobedient man, are you not carnal and walk as other men? And when we have sin in our life and we say, I'm not going to walk therein, I will not hearken to the words therein, then we shut off the illuminating power and presence of the Holy Spirit of God through the Word of God. We stop dead in our tracks, and then what happens? We begin to regress. You find it and when we backslide, we come to that point and say, oh, I don't want to go any further in my Christian life. Oh, I don't agree with that. I'm not going to do that. You're not going to tell me what to do. And what happens is we don't just stay right here. We begin to back up. We begin to back up. And things that we used to think were wrong, they're not wrong any longer. Things we used to not do, well, we do them now. Why? We continue going and regressing, and it gets darker and darker and darker and darker. Go for the old paths. The old paths, amen? The old paths, we also find, oh, they're free from the obstacles of the low standards. I'm talking about men looking like men. He said, oh, pastor, I knew this was coming. Well, I'm talking about men looking like men. I can't imagine a dad holding a newborn baby and saying, I can't wait until you get older so you can look like your sister. Can you? I want my boys looking like boys. I want them to grow up to be men. I want my girls to look like girls. Amen? I'm not interested in them looking like men. Amen? I'm not interested in the people I pastor looking like out of gender. I want the men to be men and the ladies to be ladies. I'm not looking for shims. What is that? Who is that? Duh! Would you speak for me please? Hello? Oh, that must be a guy. Oh, you're not. You see, I mean, we live in a decadent time. Men that need to be men. And when we look at the old path, when we follow the old way, those who've gone on before, starting with Genesis through the book of Revelation, amen, it's a clear path. And it's free from the obstacles of low standards. I'm talking about men looking like men at home, and at work, and at church, and at play. I'm talking about women looking like ladies at home, at work, at church, and play. I'm also talking about the standard of holy living. I'm talking about no smoking. I'm talking about no drinking. I'm talking about no movie houses. I just read today where there's one of the movie houses, one of the big ones here in Canada, is it Players? They are now petitioning to sell liquor in the movie house. Well, you knew it was coming. You knew it was coming. I mean, they set us up, they try to lure you in, and slowly but surely, changes our thing. Waters us down. Brings us from the position of hot to lukewarm to cold. That's what the world's trying to do. Wake up! We need to follow the old paths. Amen? I'm talking about no cussing. I'm talking about no cursing. I'm talking about not taking the Lord's name in vain. And when you use the words gosh and golly and things of that nature, do you realize you're taking the Lord's name in vain? Do you realize that? I looked it up in the dictionary. Because I said, people are not going to believe me when I say this. They're going to think I've really bumped my head and fallen off the watermelon truck. But you know, gosh, according to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, if you go to the old dictionaries, they didn't use all the slang expressions, they didn't give definitions. But the newer dictionaries have been putting in the slang words. Gosh and golly, this is what the definition is. A euphemism for God. Used as a mild oath. We wouldn't think of cussing, would we? But we'll take the Lord's name in vain? A mild oath? I don't think so. I can remember we used to say, I used to say, golly a lot when I was growing up. And Dr. Rice in The Sower of the Lord printed some message in there on how it was wrong to use men's oaths. And it listed a bunch of words in there that were, men's oaths are euphemisms for God. And my mom and dad said, we're going to stop using those words. Well, man, it was a habit. Every other word was golly, golly, golly. And so my mom would say, Michael, you quit using that word. Next time you do that, I'm going to do this. Next time you do that, I'm going to do this. And boy, she'd be punishing me. And finally, she said, you say that one more time, I'm going to wash your mouth out with soap. And you know what? One day I'm in the house. Man, we had a great time playing ball out in the neighborhood. My mom had this bell. We lived on Gordia Road in Augusta, Georgia. And to get our attention when we were at the playground, she'd ring that bell. Ba-bing, ba-bing, ba-bing, ba-bing. And we knew it was time to go home. And so, hey, I ran in the house and I said, I had a great time. And you know what? She took a bar of soap and she took a washcloth. And she got that washcloth all soaked up. She made me bend over the sink and she crammed that whole washcloth in my small mouth. And you know what? After that happened, I was a slow learner. And so after that happened a couple of times, I learned not to say that word anymore. And now, you know, I get this sick taste. in my mouth whenever I even think of those words. Have you ever just gotten a little bit of soap in your mouth? That's terrible, isn't it? I mean, just think, I had a whole washcloth cram-packed full. That was rough. Folks, we can break those bad habits. I broke that habit. And I didn't have to fast and pray over it. I just said, look, that thing is wrong to do, and I'm going to get in trouble if I do it. I ain't doing it no more. And you know, there comes a point in time where we have to say, well, I know it's wrong to do this, and I know it's wrong to do that. Boy, I just can't seem to get the victory. If you wanted victory, you could get the victory. You need to say, I'm going to make a determination to walk the old paths. I'm going to make the determination that I am going to walk therein, and I am going to hearken to the admonition from Scripture." And you say, well, where does it say that you shouldn't smoke in Scripture? Folks, whatsoever therefore you eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. I'm doing it to the glory of God. I'm doing it to the glory of God. Oh no, you can't. You can't do it to the glory of God. You can do it for the glory and the satisfaction of self, but not for the glory of God. We need to follow the old paths. We need to follow the path that's free from the obstacle of improper music. You know, man's way is always backwards to God's way. Man says, put the emphasis on the physical, and then the social, then the emotional, and lastly the spiritual. God says, no, that's not my plan and program at all. I always deal with the spiritual first, and then I deal with the emotional, and then I deal with the social, and then the physical. See, it's just completely reversed from the devil's way. And music is to be God-directed and Christ-honoring. Amen? And there again, we have to look at 1 Corinthians 10.31. Does it bring glory to God? I mean, we need to say no to rock and roll. I'm talking about soft, mild, or hard. I'm talking about rap. I'm talking about country western. I'm talking about the contemporary Christian music so-called. I'm saying that we need to follow the old paths, the tried and proven paths, amen? When melody and harmony are in balance, you have a ministering of the heart that takes place. And it will feel good too. But when you can shut the words off on a split track and just hear the music, and you can't tell what it is or what it's trying to uplift, something's wrong. When there's not that soothing, uplifting spirit of the music to the soul, then you've got the wrong stuff. And now we have this great thing that contemporary bridges. From the world to the church. From the world, from Satan's music to God's music. We've got this bridge. Notice the stars that were big purveyors of that philosophy. They rose up and Christ-honoring people thought that they would get on their bandwagon and buy their CDs and buy their tapes and listen to their music and make them famous as they crossed over. And now what's happened? They can't cross back. They're off into the world. Their marriages are a wreck. Their philosophy is down the tubes. Why? They went for the new way. They went for the new path. They went for another direction. They walked off the path of Moses. They walked off the path of Paul. They walked off the path of the Lord Jesus Christ. They walked off the path of saints, of old men and women of old who stood by the stop. We need to stay with the old paths. Amen? May we always hold a high standard here. And folks, one thing I saw at that conference down there in Walkertown is that seems to be the prevailing thing in so many of our independent fundamental Baptist churches. A lot of churches, they're saying, hey, we're not tampering with our message. We're preaching from the same book. We're preaching the gospel. But yet, we're just using this methodology. And the crowds are coming. The ends do not justify the means. Folks, stick with the old paths. What's wrong with the hymns that we sang tonight? I mean, those Bible-based hymns. I mean, what's wrong with that? I'm a child of the King? I mean, my, so clear, so plain. And you know, your focus was on the words and not the music. You know what these musicians are right here? They are companionists. They accompany. They add to. They're not the show. They're the dressing. Amen? And the message of the song is vital. It needs to be clear. It needs to be plain. It needs to be doctrinally sound. Amen? The old path. It's free from the obstacle of improper music. The old path is free from improper doctrine. I'm talking about the old path of salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that not what Ephesians chapter 2 says? For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves? It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. The old path is the path of salvation by grace through faith. The old path is free from the obstacles of improper doctrine of the ordinance of baptism, that first step of obedience where you have the proper authority and the proper candidate. No one is qualified to be baptized in water unless they've had a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if they have not been saved, and they get baptized, that's where the mockery comes in, that's where the blasphemy comes in, that's where the lie comes in. You get saved, and then you get baptized. So you have the proper authority, the proper candidate, and the proper biblical mode. The old path is free from the obstacle of improper doctrine, of salvation by grace, of baptism, of the local church. of eternal security of all these holiness issues. Amen? Aren't you glad that you can walk in a path that's tried and proven? That you don't have to wonder, has anyone been this way before? My, how sad that many of the songs that are out today and much of the philosophy out today, they're following some of the gurus, church gurus of North America, Willow Creek and Saddleback Community and the Purpose Driven Church where they say, oh, take the blood out of the songs. We've got an independent Baptist church that for several years here in Manitoba, they came back from Saddleback Community Church, Rick Warren, the purpose-driven church, and they said, you know, we need to take the blood of Jesus Christ out of our songs. So they wouldn't sing, there is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. They stop singing that song because they say, you know how gory that sounds to a lost man? You know how terrible the blood of Jesus Christ sounds to those who don't know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior? Oh my friend, they quit singing. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. They quit singing songs like that. Why? Oh, because it was too gory. My Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Jesus Christ not only had to die for the sins, He shed His blood. When the death angel passed through the nation of Israel, looking there at that last plague, He was not looking for a dead lamb's carcass in the back of the house, on the rubbish heap somewhere. He was looking for the blood on the lentil post. And He said, when I see the blood, I will pass. I will pass over you. Praise the Lord, that pastor left, and they've got a pastor in there now that's trying to set those things back in line, but it's a tough row to hoe. Why? Because they left the path. They left the old path looking for the new. They wanted to get the crowd. They wanted to get the offering. They wanted to build the buildings. They wanted all the peripheral that everyone seems to be going after today, and they lost the blessing of Almighty God. We have a form of godliness today, but we deny the power thereof. We need the old paths, amen? Number three, the old paths are the safest ways to travel. You know, free from obstacles, you can clearly see it. You know, when you get off the well-traveled route, you open yourself up to the unknown, don't you? I mean, how many times have you thought, I know I've been out deer hunting, and you'd be saying, okay, which way should I go? I think I'll crest through here, and you start going off into some uncharted territory, and you lose the path, and pretty soon the branches are yanking your hat off, and they're getting you all tied up with your gun and your scope, and you're trying to fight your way through. Right, guys? You know it to be true. If you'd just stayed on the path, you'd be alright. Amen? It's the safest way to travel. It's the best way to travel. When you go off the well-traveled route, you open yourself up to the unknown and the unseen, the traps, the deceivers. Stick with the old paths. Stick with the old paths. 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. The old paths, number four. And lastly, the old paths are the best way to your destination. Not necessarily the quickest, but the best way. Amen? The best way. Folks, we put the next generation at jeopardy by seeking another way. Have you thought about that? Our young people are saying today, if we don't hold to the old path and we don't clearly walk and keep that pathway trodden down, they won't know where to walk. Or they'll start shooting off to this path and that way and this way and all over the way. We put the next generation in jeopardy by seeking that other way. We're not doing what we're doing for the doing's sake. We're doing it because we want the good way too. Amen? I don't preach like this. We don't have the standards that we have here and we're not singing the songs we sing here or having the speakers that we have and have the standards that we have because, oh, we think we're better than anyone else. It's not a matter of being better than anyone else. It's a matter of seeking to walk in the ways of the Lord. And you say, well, you think you're perfect? Oh, no. And we don't have all of our ducks in a row, I'm sure. But boy, when we see that one's out of line, we want to get it back in line. And if we need to add a duck, we want to add a duck to the row. Amen? I mean, we don't want to just say, well, you know, we've got it here. We are always the right ones. No. The standard is God. It's not another church. It's not another denomination. It's not any of that. Amen? But the old ways, the old paths, are the best way to our destination. I'm going to read these two verses once again and ask you three questions. 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. You notice it says that's when rest comes? Notice that? Walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls. Quit chafing at the bit. Quit looking to get off the path. And I don't like the path. I don't like to play and follow the leader. Thank God for the old paths. Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, Harken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken. Let's all stand with our heads bowed, our eyes closed. Question tonight. Three of them. Will you ask for the old paths? Question number two. Will you decide to walk therein? Notice the decision is yours. Question three, will you decide to hearken to the message? Or do you already find yourself excusing the points that step on your toes? Will you ask for the old paths? Will you decide to walk therein? Will you decide to hearken to the message? What's your answer?