The Old Paths

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.