I am going to repeat the fragment of Scripture which has stood over our time together this weekend, not to dwell particularly upon it, but to have it there as standing over all that we have to say.
Jeremiah 17:12:
A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning,
is the place of our sanctuary.
Now, for this present time, turn back to 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.
At this point in the ministry of the prophet, he is commanded to indicate to the people that they have come to the crossroads. The position in which they were at that time constituted for them crossroads—roads crossing and dividing. From this time, the choice of road was going to determine their future and their destiny.
At some point, which is not easy to trace or fix, in their history a deceitful current had entered the stream of their life. It may have been very small, as these things usually are—almost imperceptible. Its nature and meaning were not quickly recognized; its significance was not measured.
It had been so with these people: small, and yet, as it went on, it gathered momentum until, by 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. He pointed to it, and the people were called upon to stop and face the whole situation. This is the word with which He challenged them:
Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths,
where is the good way;
and walk therein.
The effect of this foreign element which had crept in was to bring about an almost total loss of the central, controlling, integrating authority.
That, by the way, is the principle of this all-governing word in Jeremiah 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—weariness with the whole business, a sense of futility, of not getting anywhere. Then came the crumbling to pieces, the breaking up, division, disintegration, and conflict—all for one reason.
Some people—and it would seem a large number, the mass—accepted the way things were going and abandoned themselves to it. Some others were confused and bewildered. Some were fearful and distressed.
The Lord knew all about it and came in with this word: “Crisis has been reached. You are at the crossroads. You have got to stop and consider—consider.”
The first thing, as you notice, is, “Stand ye in the ways, and see.” Stand. Stop. Pause. Reflect. Take in the situation. Break this pace. Stand at the crossroads and see. Look. Take account. Take note. Oh, this is a critical time.
That brings us right into the whole message of this conference, so called. The one uniting, coordinating thing in the life of any people of God, or of any individual child of God—the absence of which is bound to bring conditions like these—is a clear apprehension and strong grasp of why we are God’s people.
Why has the Lord brought us to Himself? Why do we exist as the people of God?
What we have been trying to see and 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 their way to heaven. He has called us, chosen us, and brought us to Himself for a great purpose.
That purpose is to be instrumental in our time. You can leave past times and future times to those to whom they belong; but in our time, we are 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 it up, as the Word is, to reunite all things in Christ; to bring back that which is His eternal appointment.
We cannot 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 which we find here in this book of Jeremiah.
Firstly, arrested spiritual development. Having gone so far, then stopping; 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 for a moment because they had ceased to be the Lord’s people; and not for one moment because they had ceased to carry out the ordinances, the rituals, the ceremonies, and 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 their ordinances as ever. No, it was 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 realize that they were called to be the Lord’s people, and that everything bound up with that had one object—to constitute them a people in this world by whom the world would be brought to know God; to constitute them an instrument unto the nations.
Now they had become something in themselves. The limits of their whole horizon were fixed with themselves. All this had turned in upon themselves.
They had either forgotten or completely violated the law 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. On the other hand, they were to have all that 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 purpose and vision.
Remember, dear friends, all that we have said: 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.
The throne is the symbol of universal rights, authority, and government vested in the Lord Jesus. They lost the vision of the throne, lost the vision of their calling, and had lost their divine vocation, which was the very meaning of their existence.
That being so, purpose having fallen out, everything went. Everything went. It was on that one issue, which included everything—and one issue does include everything—that this word came through Jeremiah: “Call a halt. We are at the crossroads. You have got to look right into this thing, the nature of it. See. Stand still.”
Dear friends, before we go on, you will see that this was true of Israel at that time, and probably see features of it in our own time. Let us come very close to this.
If there should be arrested spiritual progress and growth in any life, in any company of the Lord’s people anywhere, or in the church at large—if that should be the state, though they are the Lord’s people, though they are very busy in the Lord’s things outwardly, and yet are not spiritually growing, growing and increasing with the increase of God—then stand still and ask, “What is the meaning of this?”
I do not 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 what even so long ago there was in the knowledge of the Lord, in the enjoyment of the Lord, in the understanding of the Lord, in the meaning of the Lord.
If it is 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 recognize that you cannot just go on like this unless you are going to throw everything away.
What does it mean? Spiritual arrest may, of course, be due to many things—particular things in any one life or any one place. But the thing that I am bringing to you at this time as an important 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 something other than God intended and brought you into being for, personally and collectively.
Some deceitful current may have 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 than that.
If there is confusion in your life, so that you do not know what is right and what is wrong; if there is no all-governing authority that integrates, that unites, that runs steadily through the whole—then you are scattered and divided. 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, something that is other, something 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. Find the person or the people without a purpose like that governing their whole life and touching everything—not only in the meetings, but reaching out through the home, the business, and everything else—and you find limitation.
Everything is to be in the light of this one great, all-governing object: the place of Jesus Christ in God’s intention—His fullness, our place for Him, everything being made to bend to that, bow to that, serve that.
I tell you, your life will be in confusion; it will be a divided life, a weak life, a limited life, unless you have come to this: “My business, my home, all my affairs, my society, my occupation, 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 it is so in India or some other place, some country to which God does not send me. But here I am.
Here, whether it be Honor Oak or Richmond or to you, or any other place, it may be a limited spot, but that is part of the nations. That is just as much a part of the nations as any country in this world. Do not be romantic and 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. 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 it here—is this:
My people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
and hewed 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; life is spontaneous and overflows.
Over against this is hewing out cisterns—all the labour, all the hard work, all the weariness: hewing out from solid rock a cistern, then filling it up, only to find a crack in it and all seeping and leaking away. Broken cisterns, which can hold no water.
Your work, your effort, your organization—what you are doing—instead of this spontaneous thing with God. What a contrast. In line with God’s purpose, the river flows. I know what I am talking about, dear friends.
On some other line—what we call organized Christianity—we have got to do the work, we have got to find the resources. That is 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 systems there are. Disappointment—they can hold no water.
The difference is this: in line with His purpose, it is spontaneous. It is so. You have honest, conscientious work to do in the right way, but it is the flow—it is the flow of life. It comes along this course, along this course of the divine purpose concerning the Lord Jesus.
As we said this afternoon, God commits Himself to that, with you in it, and carries you along. If it is not like that, stand. There is a crossroads. Stand and see. 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. That is so when you have your course set wholly in line with what that throne from eternity has meant: everything gathered into the Son of God.
Stand. Reflect. Consider. Take it all in.
Make yourself aware of what this alternative is. What is this alternative? What is the meaning of it?
If you look into this book, and then into the history of Israel, you find that they had left the heavenly way and come down onto an earthly way. Their original history, indeed, was one of heavenly ways. Everything was from heaven. Everything was linked with heaven.
Now, everything was meant to be like that. If you had gone through the tribes of Israel as they were there, ranged around the tabernacle in the wilderness—gone through their thousands—you would have found a certain, may I put it this way, fashion prevailing: fashion in dress.
Everybody had on the edge of their garments a blue thread. No, it was not the mark of the temperance society! But blue was the predominant colour in Israel, and it was everywhere.
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. Everything in Israel corresponded to that; it was like a piece of it. It was corporate blue—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. 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. While here in this world, they were 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. In the days when it was like that, there were days of joy and harmony. But they had left that heavenly position. While maintaining the forms, they left it and came down to earth, down onto the level of the other peoples of the earth.
You read the book. I cannot take you through it, but there it is, so clear—so clear. 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.” The Lord said to Samuel, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me.”
The glorious throne on high was rejected in order to have a throne on the earth. The Lord let them have their throne, their Saul, and their king; but all these conditions followed—frustration, limitation. They came down to earth.
That is the battle: to keep on the heavenly level and not be brought down, forced down, tricked down. This deceitful current which came in had that effect: it brought them down onto an earthly level.
Many of you may not understand what that means, but many of you do. It is a battle there—something as they do it in this world, something that is done here.
But look: the challenge is, “Ask for the old paths.” Is there some hint in that, some suggestion, some implication, that the trouble—the condition, the state of things—was due to this: “Oh, we are tired of all this. Let us have something new. Let us have something fresh. Let us have a change”?
You know, one of the prophets put his finger on that: “Where there are no changes, where there are no changes.” People cannot bear not to have variety. They have 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 and divine life which is right. But when it becomes something like this—“Oh, we are tired of the old things. Tired of the old thing. Let us have something new”—there may be something deceitful in that.
So comes the throwing off of restraint, the throwing off of that which God established, that which God brought in; the hankering after variety, novelty, something different. You notice that course of things in Christianity today. It is always very near.
It becomes very artificial, does it not? Straining and forcing, unnatural—trying to be different, trying to be clever, trying to be novel. It is an awful evil in forsaking the old.
Let us be very careful what we mean when we say we do not 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 and the early church represent the old paths. That is exactly what we do want.
Here is something that is not true and right, that is new. Oh, I know how much there is in many aspects of newness which is true, and I am not thinking about that. These people were throwing over everything God had brought in and established as the basis of the life which had been in such fullness, spontaneity, and progress. They were throwing it all over—tired of it.
Stand. See. Ask.
Another element in this state of things, you see, was that there were false prophets. Jeremiah was confronted with the false prophets. They were thorns in his side. They were the ones who made his life a life of contention.
But what were the false prophets saying? Look into it again. They were saying, “Do not listen to Jeremiah. If you do, if you do, he will lead you straight into trouble. 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, do not listen to Jeremiah.”
In a word, they wanted popularity. Popularity. Jeremiah was the most unpopular man on the face of the earth at that time. But was Jeremiah right? Was what Jeremiah stood for the right way? How did it work out?
Oh, 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, most people; or whether it is the way of the cross. You have got to decide.
I do not know what is in it, but I know of a book written by Dr. Wheeler Robinson. I have never seen it; I have never read it. 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 do not know what is 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. That minority is an unpopular minority, and about them the others say, “Do not you go that way. Do not you listen to them. Do not you follow them. You do—you see what you are in for, what you will lose.” Policy becomes the ruling thing at the crossroads.
Here is the inquiry at the crossroads as to what really is the nature of this thing; and then the decision—the decision: “Ask for the old paths.”
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. What is there in all creation to be compared with an open heaven and a released Holy Spirit?
That was the old path of the Book of Acts. But that was by the way of the cross. It was the way of the exalted Christ upon the throne. Although, like Jeremiah, it meant for the church suffering, adversity, persecution, pain, and cost—oh, the wonder of that cross.
I had thought that sometime during this weekend I would be able to put in a message on the sovereignty of the cross. It has been fascinating—just fascinating—as I have gone through the pages of the story of the cross and seen that, from one side, from the earthly and human side, it looks like tragedy and defeat and the triumph of evil and the enemy.
But from another side, it is seen 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, there it is—the sovereignty of the cross.
They said this; sovereignty came in, 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 this man, but Barabbas”; not Jesus, but Barabbas. Then, 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.” They put their King, their true King, on the cross. What happened? They got Caesar, and he absolutely wiped out their nation in A.D. 70, scattering them over the world so that they have never had a king through these two thousand years.
There is a throne above, you see, above that cross, working by the cross. Pilate said, “Put up an inscription. Write it in three languages: Hebrew, Greek, Latin.” Over that cross was written, in effect:
Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.
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, the way of the open heaven, the way of the released Holy Spirit.
But ask for the old paths, and walk therein. Your decision: weigh it all up, look at it, compare the values—the two ways, this way and that way, the crossroads.
Having decided, “Oh, though I gain the whole world, though I 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.”
May the Lord bring us there at this time.