Subject: THE OLD PATHS AND THE GOOD WAY.
Text: Jeremiah 6:16: "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."
New things seem to have a great appeal to human nature.
From the time when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden and weren't satisfied with what they had and wanted to try some new fruit right on down to the present time, people in every generation have been attracted to things that were new.
You may remember the brief but vivid description of the people of Athens when the Apostle Paul went there on one of his missionary journeys. We read in ACTS 17:21 that all of the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing. It was apparently because they thought that Paul taught a new doctrine that some of them took him to Mars' Hill, which was the highest court in Athens, and asked him to explain his teachings to them.
There is a tendency in human nature to get the idea that new things are better than the old, that new ways are better than old ways, that new books are more enlightened than old books, that new methods are better than old methods, that new styles are better than old styles, that new models are better than old models and that almost anything that is new is somehow an improvement over its counterpart which is old.
Thus, there are those I suppose in almost every generation, who are quick to discard the old in favor of the new. You can see them in the clothing stores just as soon as the newest styles come out. You can see them in the showrooms of car dealers just as soon as the new models come out. You can see them in the appliance stores whenever some new gadget is being advertised, or in the record shops when the newest song hits come on the market. Sold on the idea that the new is better than the old, they must keep up with the latest fads and styles, all the way from having their ears pierced for ear rings even before they are in kindergarten to having the latest style clothing and the newest hair style and the most modern furnishings and appliances in the home and the latest equipment to work with. Not satisfied with potatoes and pinto beans and cornbread and sausage, eggs and grits, they keep trying out new recipes and looking for new dishes to prepare. I guess that's one reason why there are so many, many new types of eating places these days - taco places, pizza parlors, Japanese restaurants, Chinese restaurants, Mexican cafes, Biscuit-lands, Po-Folks Restaurants and the like. If you are tired of dry cereal for breakfast, you can try hash-browns and blueberry muffins. If you are tired of McDonald's, you can try Burger King. If you are tired of hot dogs, you can try tacos. If you are tired of Southern cooking, you can try some foreign cooking.
There's "new this" and "new that" all around in almost every area of life, even to what people refer to as the "new morality", much of which isn't morality at all but is just a new form of an old way of sinning. And, in recent years, our country has been flooded with what, to us, are new religions, new ways of living and new systems of value.
But the new is not necessarily better than the old.
Years ago when someone asked Henry Thoreau one day if he did not consider the railroad a great improvement over the stagecoach, he said, "Provided it carries better people. Otherwise it's only meanness going faster."
Blue jeans are not necessarily better than overalls.
Break-dancing is not necessarily better than square-dancing.
Frizzing your hair in a beauty parlor does not necessarily make you look more attractive than an old-fashioned permanent.
Long hair that curls up around your neck and covers your ears, drops down over your eyes when you try to study and is a tangled-up mess when you go swimming is not necessarily better than a crew-cut or an old-fashioned honest-to-goodness barber shop haircut.
These modern trivial-pursuit and space games are not necessarily better than checkers and monopoly and Rook and hop-scotch.
"Baby Ray" was not necessarily an improvement over the old McGuffey readers nor were the "Dick And Jane" books necessarily an improvement over the "Baby Ray" stories just because they were newer.
Open classrooms were not necessarily an improvement over the one-grade self-contained classrooms, nor are consolidated schools necessarily an improvement over the community schools of former days.
The new may sometimes be better, but it is not necessarily better. The 1985 model car may not be as good as the 1984 or the 1983 models, and the newest styles and fads may be just a gimmick of the manufacturers to sell more merchandise rather than an improvement over those of former days.
The shoes I am wearing this morning are the very same style, made in the same way and by the same company as the shoes that Grady Smith was buying fifty years ago.
The sheet metal roofing on Grady and Bertice Smith's house has lasted over a hundred years now whereas most modern roofing is good for only about twenty years or possibly thirty.
Doing your math homework with a calculator, while the stereo is blaring and the TV is on is not nearly as effective a method of learning as learning the multiplication tables by heart and working your math problems in a quiet room on a rough piece of tablet paper with a stubby pencil that has a worn-out eraser.
Most of the so-called "Best Sellers" among the new books that clutter the bookstores cannot even begin to compare with the old classics that have stood the test of time in the inspiration, insights and worth to the readers that they offer.
Even a tremendous amount of the religious literature being written now does not have the spiritual depth of that of former years and days gone by.
Some new things are an improvement over the old, but many are not.
The really important things of life tend to be the ageless things.
Breathing is as old as the human race, yet it is an absolute necessity for all of us. Sunlight is as old as the sun, yet we could not survive without it. Crops would not grow, darkness would prevail, and the earth would become a frozen planet.
Water is older than the hills, yet we could not survive without it.
Truth endures to all generations.
Goodness is an absolute necessity for peace of heart and satisfaction in life.
What is right and what is wrong is determined by the nature and will of the Creator of us all, and since God is the same yesterday, today and forever, right does not change from day to day or with the passing seasons. The Ten Commandments are just as up-to-date now as they were when they came fresh from the hand of God thousands of years ago. The teachings of God's Word are just as binding upon us today as they were upon the people who heard the words of eternal truth come from the lips of Jesus Himself. You may remember that Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away" but that His "words shall not pass away." (Matthew 24:35)
The people of Jeremiah's day had gotten into trouble along these lines. Impressed with the idea that the new is better than the old, they had turned away from their old religion, from the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to the worship of other gods and even to the works of their own hands. God accused them of two evils: first, of having forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters; and, secondly, of hewing out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
God reminds them that He is the One Who brought them out of the land of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, and then brought them safely across the Jordan River into a land of plenty and goodness. He is the One Who has blessed their nation, helped them in their times of need, and shown to them the good way of life. He has been to them as a fountain of living water and His words have marked out clearly for them the pathway of life.
Yet they have turned from the worship of Him to embrace other religions and even to worship idols which they have made with their own hands. No longer walking in the old pathways which God had marked out for them, but carried away with new pathways and new gods, they have gotten into trouble and are heading towards destruction. No longer satisfied to be a nation under God, a peculiar people, zealous of good works, they have turned from the old way to embrace the new, and, in so doing, have become a restless people who find no lasting satisfaction in anything they turn to.
I think G. Campbell Morgan put it pretty well when he said that if we are bothered and restless, unable to find an anchor for our lives, the reason is that we have lost our awareness of God. Once our souls break loose from being anchored to the Rock of Ages, they float adrift on the tossing and changing waves of the oceans of this world which contain nothing that can satisfy the hunger of the immortal soul for that which endures nor the thirst of the immortal spirit for that which gives everlasting meaning and value to life.
The people of Israel in Jeremiah's time had forsaken God Who is the fountain of living waters, and, in pursuit of new religions, had hewn out for themselves broken cisterns that could indeed hold no water.
Thus, the call of God came to them through Jeremiah, saying, "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."
Augustine of old is quoted as having said that "God has made us for Himself, and our souls are restless until they rest in Him."
Apart from a right relationship with God there is nothing in this present world that can give a person lasting satisfaction or peace of heart.
It is said that on coming downstairs one morning, a rather wealthy man overheard his cook saying, "Oh, if I only had twenty-five dollars, I would be content."
He thought it over a moment, then handed her twenty-five dollars.
After he left the kitchen, he waited silently in a hallway to listen to her expression of satisfaction, but instead of expressing her gratitude, he heard her say, "Oh, why didn't I say fifty dollars!"
It is said that on one occasion J. Paul Getty, then one of the wealthiest men in the world, was being interviewed by a reporter. He was asked if he were to retire then, whether on not his wealth would amount to a billion dollars. A billion dollars, in case you are wondering how much it is, is the same as a million $1,000.00 bills.
Mr. Getty took a few moments to think about what he owned and then he said, "I suppose so," and then he added, "but you must remember that a billion does not go as far as it used to."
It takes walking in the old paths of honesty and truth and goodness and love that God has marked out to bring real satisfaction and peace of heart. It takes a right relationship with God and an assurance from Him that one's name is written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. Until that takes place we can rush hither and yon; we can get this and that; we can do one thing and then another - but rest for our souls will still elude us, and peace of heart and lasting satisfaction in life will still be beyond our grasp!
I think sometimes about Uncle Glenn Smith. Before ever I moved into the Bethlehem parsonage I was told about Uncle Glenn and what a fine man he was.
He was one of the most faithful members of this church and one of the most highly respected men in the community. I can still picture him coming into the church on Sunday morning, coming down the side aisle and taking his customary seat over on the south side not too far back from the front.
Uncle Glenn never had much of the wealth of this world when measured by worldly standards and he didn't want much. He was content and satisfied with what he had. He and Aunt Nannie knew more satisfaction and contentment living in their little white frame house than multitudes of people do who live in fine mansions, drive expensive cars and have large bank accounts but neglect to walk in the paths that God marks out.
I think sometimes of Paul and Silas sitting in that prison dungeon in Philippi, their feet in the stocks, but with so much peace in their hearts and contentment in their souls that at the midnight hour they sang the praises of God. I think of the Apostle Paul writing to some of his Christian friends and saying, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content." The secret of it is that he was simply walking in the paths which God had marked out for his life.
The old paths which God has marked out are still the best paths to travel through life. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Who revealed Himself in the incarnation in and through Jesus Christ His Son is still the true and living God. The strait and the narrow way of faith in Him and obedience unto His will is still the way which leads one safely into the everlasting kingdom. The Bible is still the best Book and the one which contains the Words of eternal life.
We search the world for truth. We cull
The good, the true, the beautiful,
From graven stone and written scroll,
And all old flower-beds of the soul;
And, weary seekers of the best,
We come back laden from our quest,
To find that all the sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read.
- John Greenleaf Whittier
The people of Jeremiah's day, impressed with the new religions around them and with the work of their own hands, had forsaken God and the old paths that He had marked out for them and were trying to find the good life along other pathways. In so doing, they had become a restless, dissatisfied people, had gotten off the true pathway of life, and were heading towards national and personal disaster.
Our nation, likewise, seems to have drifted far from placing God at the center of life and from obedience to His Commandments.
While the words, "In God We Trust", are still on our coins, God seems to be excluded more and more from our national life.
There was a little story this past week in one of the periodicals about a school teacher who saw a little group of boys kneeling in a corner of the school playground. She immediately reported it to the school principal who called them into his office and asked for an explanation. They told him they were playing poker. "Oh, thank goodness!" exclaimed the teacher. "We thought you were praying!"
Surely that sort of thing has never happened in Davie County, but a nation that pays a person millions of dollars to run up and down a basketball court with a ball or to see how many people he can knock down running with a football tucked under his arm or how efficiently he can knock a person unconscious in a boxing ring and that pays those charged with the task of educating its children just a bare living wage; a nation whose public media specialize in bad news rather than the good; a nation that glamourizes immorality and violence on a tremendous portion of its television programs, and where multiplied millions of its citizens are more hooked on soap operas than they are on church and the study of God's Word has its sense of values all mixed up and cannot rightfully claim to be putting God and His will first.
Roger Babson, perhaps the outstanding business authority and statistician in our country in his day, once said that what our country needs more than more railroads, banks and businesses, is a return to the kind of religion that years ago stopped work on the farms an hour earlier on Wednesdays so that the whole family could get to the Wednesday night prayer service at the church.
Well, Joshua in the long ago, just before he gave up the leadership of the nation of Israel and took his leave of this earth, looked out upon a people whom he was not quite sure were going to remain faithful and true to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He said to the people gathered before him, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
We cannot determine what others will do, but the old pathways that God marked out in His holy Word are still the best pathways to travel on through life; His way is still the good way. And those who walk therein do indeed find rest for their souls.
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
May we have the wisdom and the foresight to hold true to God and to His Word and will, no matter what the rest of the world may do.
Jesus was, is and ever shall be the way, the truth and the life, and those who follow Him will never be led the wrong way.
I think Dr. C. Excelle Rozzelle put it well when he said that no one has ever yet obeyed God and come out at the little end of the horn because of doing so.