"A WALK IN THE OLD PATH" #2

                      
Good day as we continue with our walk on 'The Old Path'.

We cannot walk in the old paths if we do not even know where they are. This is why we are instructed in II Timothy 2:15,
"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing THE WORD OF TRUTH."
Also we cannot teach what we do not know. Remember too the rebuke in Hebrews 5:12,

"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food." (NKJV)
When we procrastinate and put off improving our spiritual depth in God's Word, this sort of delay becomes a tool of Satan in capturing our souls and leading us in the direction of bondage.
Far too many today would rather hear stories, be amused and entertained, rather than hear sermons and lessons from God's Word that rebuke, exhort or edify.

Paul tells us in II Timothy 4:3, "For the time will come when they will NOT ENDURE SOUND DOCTRINE; but after their own desires will they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears."
Does this not sound like our religious world today?

Notice what is said about God's people in Jeremiah 5:31, "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so:.."

One of the saddest scenes in Judah's doom is in Jeremiah 7:1-11 where the nation of God made their sanctuary their cemetery! Oh, believe it or not, they put too much emphasis on the temple itself and forgot to cleanse their own hearts by God's standard.

This is like so many today who refuse to walk in the old paths of personal devotion in God's Word while they foolishly center their religion around a building, a music program or entertainment of some sort. Where is the love and study for the personal letter God wrote for us?

When we try to guide ourselves, that which Jeremiah 10:23 says is not in us to do, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps", we then lose contact with our Maker and the church crumbles. Paul brings to our attention that our sufficiency is not within ourselves.

In II Corinthians 3:5 he tells us, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God," (NKJV)

This sort of deterioration was carefully recorded  in Lamentations 4, where Jeremiah, weeping, reminded Judah of how the people who had been raised in scarlet now searched the garbage dumps looking for tiny reminders of, you guessed it, the 'old paths'.                    

Just as Judah mocked the prophets, some today ridicule and rebuke faithful proclaimers of the Gospel Truth. Walking in that broad path that leads to destruction of which Jesus speaks of in Matthew 7:13-14, will prove to be a course many will live to regret. Deceptive human pride gets in the way of heaven's plan and causes many to fall, even the most religious. Read Matthew 7:21f.

The wise man tells us in Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." 

God, through the prophet Jeremiah tried to impress on Judah that a person must seek the old paths, and not avoid them. This is key. When good and honest hearts desire to do right in the eyes of God and heed His Word as written, the problem will be quickly solved.

May God help us to point men in that direction, and may we also be sure that we also walk there, as well. God’s desire is that all men would be saved and live with Him eternally. 

God in His wisdom has laid out the path on which we must walk in order to live with humans. That Path has not changed since He set it in motion. Only those who seek that same old path and walk on it will be blessed with eternal life.

Too often we use the phrase, 'Get off the beaten path and try something new.' When it comes to God and His Word, His mind is set on 'THE OLD PATH'. 
God bless until our next time...