I am going to repeat the fragment
of Scripture which has stood over our time together in this
weekend; not to dwell particularly upon it, but to have it there
as standing over all that we have to say. In the prophecies of
Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 12: "A glorious throne, set on high
from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary".
And now for this present time, will
you turn back to chapter 6, at verse 16: "Thus saith the Lord,
Stand ye
in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths wherein is the
good way, and walk therein".
Stand in the ways... and see... and ask
for the old paths... wherein is the good way... and walk therein.
At this point in the ministry of
the prophet, he is commanded to indicate to the people that they
have come to the crossroads; that the position and the condition
in which they were at the time, represented and constituted for
them crossroads. The roads were crossing and dividing, and from
this time, their choice of road was going to seal for them their
future; determine their destiny. At some point, which is not
easy to trace or fix, at some point in their history a deceitful
current had entered the stream of their life. It may have been
very small at first, as these things usually are - almost
imperceptible... the nature and meaning of which is not
recognised,
the significance of which is not measured. It had been so with
these people, small, and yet as it went on, it gathered
momentum, until the time of these prophecies. It had taken
control and was carrying almost everything in its course. The
Lord knew about it, knew the trend of things, knew the
implications, knew what it pointed to, and saw that people must
be called upon to stop and face this whole situation. And this
is the word with which He challenged them: "Stand ye in the
ways and see, and ask for the old paths, wherein is the good
way, and walk therein".
The effect of this "something", this
foreign element, which had crept in, was to bring about an
almost total loss of a central, controlling, integrating
authority. That, by the way, is the point of this all-governing
word in chapter 17 - a throne on high - the central, uniting
government. That was what was needed, because, as I have just
said, it was just that which had gone, resulting in complete
confusion. If there is no single voice of authority, no one
centre of government, no one uniting vision and purpose, then
there is confusion. No one knows what is right and what is
wrong, whether things are right or wrong; that is how it was then.
And that produced unrest... unrest.
This appeal, as you notice
in verse 16 of chapter 6: "Walk therein and ye shall find rest for
your
souls". Unrest... weariness with the whole business... a sense of
futility... not getting anywhere. And then the crumbling to
pieces, breaking up, divisions and schisms, and conflicts - all
for one reason, but that is how it was. Some people (and it
would seem, a large number, if not the mass) accepted this way
that things were going and abandoned themselves to it. Some
others were confused and bewildered by it all. Some were fearful
and distressed. The Lord knew all about it, and came in with this
word: A crisis has been reached; you are at the crossroads, you
have got to stop and consider.
The first thing, as you notice, is:
Stand in the Ways, and See.
Stand! Stop! Pause! Reflect!
Take in the situation. Break this spell! Stand at the crossroads,
and see, look, take account, take note, for this is a
critical time.
That brings us right back to the whole message of
this conference (so-called) because the one uniting,
co-ordinating thing in the life of any people of God, or any
individual child of God, the absence of which is bound to bring
conditions like this, like these, the one all-integrating thing
is a clear apprehension and strong grasp of why we are God's
people. Why has the Lord called us to Himself? Why
do we exist
as people of God? What we have been trying to see and to show is
that it is not just to be His people, not just to be different
from other people in the world, not just to be a saved people
who are on our way to heaven. But He has called us, He has
chosen us, He has brought us to Himself for a great purpose,
and
that purpose is to be instrumental in our time - we can
leave
past times and future times to those who belong to them - but in our
time, to
effect that measure which belongs to our time, of the purpose of
God to bring all things into His Son Jesus Christ - to 'gather
up', as the word is - "to re-unite all things in Christ", to
bring back that which is His by eternal appointment of the
Father.
We dare not take time this evening to dwell upon that,
but make no mistake about it, anything other than that, anything
less than that, will undoubtedly result in the conditions that
we find here in this book of prophecies.
Firstly, arrested
spiritual development.
Arrested Spiritual Development
Having gone so far, then stopped. And from
that time, no progress spiritually, no enlargement of
spiritual
life, no increase of spiritual stature - arrested
spiritual
progress and growth. They had stopped in that. Why? Not, not for a
moment because they ceased to be the Lord's people, and not for
one moment because they ceased to carry out the ordinances, and
the ritual, and the forms, and the ceremonies, and all the whole
system which had been given to them, which was their religious
tradition and inheritance. They were as active in their temple
activities, their sacrifices and ordinances, as ever. It was
going on. No, not because the outward forms of their
relationship with God had ceased - not for these reasons, and we
might add others to them. But for this one reason: they had
ceased to realise that they were called to be the Lord's people,
and that everything that was bound up with that had one object:
to constitute them a people in this world by which the
world
would be brought to know God; to constitute them an instrument
unto the nations. Unto the nations!
Now they had become something in
themselves; the limits of their horizon were fixed with
themselves. All this was turned in to themselves and they had
either forgotten, or completely violated, the laws of their very
existence: that they were raised up as a people by whom the
nations should know God and should be left with no excuse
whatever for ignorance, and, on the other hand, with all that
which would make them understand what kind of God He is and
what He requires. It was the vocation of the people that
governed everything. The vocation of the people under that
glorious throne on high from the beginning, integrated with that
one all-governing throne-purpose, and throne-vision. Because,
remember, dear friends, all that we have said: that Jesus on the
throne, the throne of heaven, embodies and represents the
purpose of God for all the nations at last - one throne over them
all, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of
our God and of His Christ.
That throne is the symbol of
universal rights, authority, government, vested in the Lord
Jesus. They had lost the vision of the throne, they had lost the
vision of their calling, and they had lost their Divine vocation
which was the very meaning of their existence. That being so,
the purpose having fallen out, everything went; everything
went. And it was on that one issue which included everything (and
one issue does include everything) that this word came
through Jeremiah: Call a halt! Call a halt! We are at the
crossroads; we have got to look right into this thing, to the
nature of it, and see. Stand still.
Now, dear friends, before we go on,
while you will see that this was true as to Israel at that time,
will probably see features of it in our own time, let's come
very close to this. If there should be arrested spiritual
progress and growth in any life or in any company of the Lord's
people anywhere, or in the church at large - if that should be
the state, while they are the Lord's people, while they are very
busy in the Lord's things outwardly and yet not spiritually
growing, growing and increasing with the increase of God (I don't
mean
numerically, it may be that as well, but I mean spiritually
growing) so that there is no doubt about it, there is a
difference now from even so long ago there was, in the knowledge
of the Lord, in the enjoyment of the Lord, in the
understanding of the Lord, the meaning of the Lord. If it's
not like that, stand still and ask: What is the meaning of
this? You are at the crossroads. Sooner or later you will have
to recognise that, that you cannot just go on like this, unless
you are going to throw everything away. What does it mean? And
while, of course, spiritual arrest may be due to many things,
particular things in any one life or in any one place, the thing
that I am bringing to you at this time, as an inclusive thing is
just this: Stand still and ask whether you may not have had
your life, your spiritual life, brought into something less
than God intended, or into something other than God intended
and brought you into being for - personally and collectively.
Whether some deceitful current has crept in and is taking
charge, resulting in something other, less, different from,
that which was the original vision, and that which is revealed
to be the supreme purpose of God in the existence of the church,
which means you individually as a true Christian.
The Way of Progress
The way of
growth, the way of Life is the way of the full purpose of God.
The way of limitation is the way of something either less or
other. It's like that. If there is confusion in your life, so
that you don't know, you don't know what is right and what is
wrong, if there
is a loss of an all-governing authority that integrates, that
unites, that holds in one steady way, if you're scattered and
divided, then stand still. Stand still, and see, and ask again:
Have
I somehow, for some reason, by some means, been sidetracked, got
off the main way of God's intention? Got into something that is
less, that is other, that is different - not the whole
counsel
of God? Stand still and see!
I am sure that you will agree that
spiritual progress and spiritual prosperity are bound up with
this: an all-unifying, inspiring, dynamic purpose - it is like
that, isn't it? Find a person or a people without a purpose
like that, that governs their whole life, touches everything, not
only in their meetings, but reaches out through them to
everything, in the homes, and in the business. It's just... its
arms
just reach out and affect everything. Everything is in the light
of this great all-governing object: the place of Jesus Christ
in God's intention - fulness of place for Him - everything being
made to bend to that, to bow to that, to serve that. And I tell
you that your life will be in confusion, and it will
be a
divided life, and it will be a weak life, it will
be a limited
life, unless you have come to this: My business, my home, all my
affairs, my
society, my occupations, my everything has got to focus upon
this: the serving of God's end concerning His Son Jesus Christ,
that in all things He shall have the pre-eminence!
He shall come
into His crown rights in this world. I may not be able to settle
that issue in some distant land. It may not be mine to see that
that is so in India, or some other place that is not my country,
to which God does not send me; but here I am. And here, whether
it be (forgive me) Honor Oak, or Richmond, or Deal, or
Canterbury, or any other place, it may be a limited spot; that's a part of the nations! That is just as much a part of
the nations as any country in this world! Don't be romantic or
sentimental about China and India to the loss of that patch
upon which God has put you! That locality, that
town, that
sphere of influence, that place of business, that
home, that is
in the nations as much as any other place is. And so far as God
will help you, it is your business to see that Christ reigns
there. The throne is there; everything is gathered to Him. You
will make spiritual progress if you have it like that. You will be
a
unified person or people if it is like that.
One of the things that the Lord had
to say through Jeremiah, you will read here, is this: "My
people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the
fountain of living water, and have hewn them out cisterns,
broken cisterns that can hold no water". What
a picture! In line with God's purpose, in full line with God's
purpose the river flows, the fountain springs up, the
spontaneous Life wells over - spontaneous! And over
against this:
'hewing out cisterns' - hewing out! Oh, the labour... oh the hard
work... oh, the weariness - hewing out from solid rock of a
cistern, and then filling it up and finding there is a crack in
it, and it all seeps and leaks away - "which can hold no
water"! Your work, your effort, your
organisation - what
you are doing instead of this spontaneous thing that God
does.
What a contrast!
In line (and I know what I am talking
about, dear friends) in line with God's purpose, the river
flows! On some other line, mere (what we call "organised")
Christianity, we've got to do the work, we've
got to find
the resources. And isn't that just what Christianity is doing?
Labouring and toiling, to find the resources to carry on
Christian activities, and largely leaking. Oh, what a lot of leaky
cisterns there are! Disappointment – they can hold no
water. That is
the difference.
In line with His purpose it is spontaneous - it
is so. You have honest, conscientious work to do in the right
way, but it's the flow, it's the flow of the Life. It
comes along this course, this course of the Divine purpose
concerning the Lord Jesus. As we said this afternoon, God
commits Himself to that. He is with you in it, and carries you
along. If it is not like that, stand! There's a crossroads.
Stand and see, and at least ask: Are we on some lesser line,
some other thing? Are we trying to make something? Trying
to
constitute something? Trying to create something? Trying
to
form something? Are we doing that or are we in something
that
God is doing? God is doing! We are not carrying this; this
thing is carrying
us! It's like that when you have your course set wholly in line
with what that throne from of old, from eternity, has meant -
everything gathered into the Son of God.
Stand! Reflect! Consider! Take it
all in!
Next, allow yourself to be made
aware of what this alternative is.
What is this Alternative?
What
is the meaning of it? If you look into this book, and into the
history of Israel that brought them to the crossroads, you will
find that they had left the heavenly way, and come down on to an
earthly way. Their original history, indeed, was a heavenly one.
Everything was from heaven, everything was linked with heaven.
Everything was meant to be like that. If you had gone through
the tribes of Israel (as they were there arranged around the
Tabernacle in the wilderness) gone through them, their
thousands, you would have found that there was a certain - may I
put it this way? - fashion prevailing; fashion in dress,
for
everybody had on the edge of their garment a blue fringe. No, it
was not the mark of the Temperance Society! But there it was -
blue was the predominant colour in Israel and it was everywhere.
And from what did it derive? There was one man right at the
centre and heart of the whole nation, the high priest, who had
a marvellous blue robe; and everything in Israel
corresponded to
that, was like a piece of it. It was 'corporate blue' (there is
a new phrase for you!). Blue is the heavenly colour, and God
ordained this, you see, from centre to circumference -
everything was to be heavenly.
So their food came from heaven -
they were sustained from heaven. Their guidance in the wilderness
came from heaven; their government came from heaven. All their
times were appointed by heaven. Their law was given from heaven,
their water came from heaven. They were, while here in this
world, a heavenly people, moving steadily on to a heavenly
country - the consummation of their heavenly life here. Well,
that is the picture.
They had been like that; had been like that and in the
days when it was like that, they were days of joy, of harmony. But
they had left their heavenly position, while, perhaps,
maintaining the forms, they left it, and had come down to earth;
come down on to the level of the other peoples the earth. You read
the book - I can't take you through it, but there it is, so
clear, so clear.
And again and again that happened in Israel.
It happened in the days of Samuel when they said: "Make us a
king like unto the nations". And the Lord said
unto Samuel, "They have not rejected thee, they have rejected
Me"! The glorious throne on high was
rejected, to have a throne on the earth. The Lord let them have
their throne, and their Saul and their king, but all these
conditions followed: frustration, limitation. Yes, they came down
to
earth. That's the battle, to keep on the heavenly level, and
not to be brought down, forced down, tricked down. But this, this
deceitful current that came in had that in it, to bring
them down on to an earthly level. Many of you may not understand
what that means, but many of you do. It is just the battle there: something like the rest, something as they do it in this
world, something that is down here.
But note, the challenge is:
Ask for
the Old Paths.
Is there some hint in that? Some suggestion, some
implication that the trouble, the trouble, the condition, the
state of
things was due to: "Oh, we are tired of all this... let us
have
something new! Let's have something fresh! Let's have a
change - let's have a change." You know, one of the prophets puts
his finger on that,
and says: 'where there are no changes'. Where there are not
changes... The people can't
just bear not to have variety, not to have changes, what they
call 'freshness' and so on. But there is a peril in that. There is
a freshness, a newness about the things of God, Divine
things, and Divine life that's right, but when it becomes
something like this: "Oh, we are tired of the old thing, tired of
the old thing... let's
have something new." There may be something in that that's
deceitful.
And so, throwing off restraint, and throwing off that which God
established, that which God brought in, and hankering
after
variety and novelty; something different.
Do you notice that
course of things today in Christianity? It's always very near,
and it becomes very artificial doesn't it? And strained, and
false,
unnatural - trying to be, trying to be different which amounts to
trying to
be clever. Trying to be clever, novel - it's an awful evil. Ask
for the old paths!
Let's be very careful what we mean when we say we don't want the
past. That is just exactly what we do want and need, if
the past
is the old paths. If the days of the apostles, of the early
church represent the old paths, that is exactly what we do want!
But here is something that is not true and right that is
new. Oh, I
know how much there is, and many aspects of newness in what is
true - I am not thinking about that. This people, throwing
over
everything that God had brought in and established as the basis
of the Life which had been in such fulness, spontaneity, progress
-
they are throwing it all over; tired of it. Stand! See! Ask!
One other element in this state of
things you see, there were false prophets. Jeremiah's bane
were the false prophets. They were the thorns in his side, they
were the ones who were making his life a life of
contention. But what were the false prophets saying? Look
into it again. They were saying: "Don't you listen to Jeremiah!
If you do, if you do, he will lead you astray and you will lose
your place, and you will be found on the unpopular side; you
will have the majority against you. Now listen, it is not
politic to go the way of Jeremiah. If you want influence, if you
want standing, if you want position, don't you listen to
Jeremiah." In a word, they wanted popularity. Popularity! And
Jeremiah was the most unpopular man on the face of the earth at
that time. But was Jeremiah right? Was what Jeremiah stood for
God's way? How did it work out? Pause, stand, see! This is the
nature of the crossroads very often; you have got to decide
whether it is popularity you are after, whether it is the way of
the majority vote, the way of the crowd, the multitude, of most
people, or whether it is the way of the Cross. You have got to
decide.
I don't know what is in it, but I
do know of a book written by Dr. Wheeler Robinson. I have never
seen it, I have never read it, but I only know its title. And I
know that it is appealed to by many. It is called The Cross of
Jeremiah -
what a title! What a fine title for this whole book. The Cross
of Jeremiah - what is the cross of Jeremiah? I say, I don't
know what's in this particular book, but I know what the
cross of Jeremiah was: it was the way of the minority, the way
that was unpopular. It was the way that was not the way of
least
resistance, it was the hardest way to take. That is always:
The
Way of the Cross.
The crossroads... is it policy? Is it
popularity? Is it common acceptance? Or is it the way of the full
purpose of God which may only be taken by a minority? So
it
works out. And that minority is an unpopular minority. And about
them the others say: "Don't you go that way, don't you listen to
them, don't you follow them! If you do, you see what you are in
for, what you will lose." And policy becomes the ruling thing at
the crossroads. It is like that.
Well, I must close. Here is the
enquiry at the crossroads as to really what is the nature of
this thing? And then the decision - the decision. Ask for the old
paths, the old paths... the path, that old path of the New
Testament,
which was by way of the Cross, was the path of the released Holy
Spirit through an open heaven. And what is there in all
the
creation that is to be compared with an opened heaven and a
released Holy Spirit? That was the 'old path' of the book of the
Acts, wasn't it? It was. But that was by the way of the Cross. It
was
the way of the exalted Christ upon the throne. And although,
like Jeremiah, it meant for the church suffering, adversity,
persecution, pain, and cost... oh, the wonder of that
Cross!
I had thought that some time during
this weekend, I would be able to put in a message on the
sovereignty of the cross, but can't. But I have been fascinated,
just
fascinated, as I have gone through the pages of the
story
of the Cross, to see that what from one side, the earthly human
side, looks like tragedy and defeat, and the triumph of evil
and the enemy, can be seen from another side to be God working
out sovereign purpose in a marvellous way. Even to hint at
it is
to open up a field of tremendous inspiration! Oh, but
there it is -
there it is, the sovereignty of the Cross, it is marvellous! They
said this; but
sovereignty came in and took hold of that and turned it in
exactly the opposite direction from what they intended.
Take one
point, if you like. They said "Not Jesus but Barabbas". And then,
being pressed, being pressed by Pilate, they said: "We have no
king but
Caesar". Oh, they never said a more foolish
and utterly mad thing! "We have no king, but Caesar!" And they put
their King, their true King on the cross. What happened? They
got Caesar, and he absolutely wiped out their nation in
seventy
years, and scattered them over the world, so that
they have never
had a king through these two thousand years.
All right, there's
a throne above, you see, a throne above that Cross, working by
that Cross. Pilate said,
"Put up an inscription, and write it in three languages, Hebrew,
Greek, Latin" - the whole world on that cross. "Ask of Me and
I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance and the
uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession". And He did it by
His Cross! It is the sovereignty of the Cross that wins the
nations for Jesus Christ. Oh, I could go on
like this for an hour! There it is. Yes, by the way of the Cross
is the way of the throne. It's the way of the opened heaven, it
is the way of the released Holy Spirit, but, ask for the
old
paths, and walk therein.
It's your decision. Weigh it all up. Look at it, compare the
values of the two ways, this way and
that at the crossroads, and having decided, "Oh, though we gain
the whole world, though we get everything
down here and lose that which God meant, that inheritance in His
Son, it is not worth it. This is the way I am going, the
way of
the Cross." The Lord bring us there at this time.