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. But they said, We will not walk therein.

There Is Rest For The Weary
Only In The God Of The Bible

Where do we find “rest for our souls”? It is in the Lord. Not the God of our imaginations, but
the God of Holy Scripture.

One of the statements I hear quite often is:

“Preacher, that Bible you have is really old and outdated. The things it addresses are outdated. We live in a new day, a new time.
It’s just not relevant anymore”.

I have a word that I like to use whenever someone says this, but it’s not a word I can use from a pulpit. I am a retired military man, Air Force. I heard a lot of rough language over my 20 years in service to our country. Sometimes a pagan word pops in my head. I won’t share it with you. So I’ll use another more sanitized word.

“Hogwash!”

The Bible is written not by man, but by

“holy men of God as they were moved by
God the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).

God saves a people, then uses that people. Early Church Pastor Augustine said:

“”God made us for Himself, and
our hearts are restless until they rest in Him”

We cannot find rest for our souls in ourselves. God calls us to Himself. He is the Immortal and Indefatigable God. The Heavens ring with this truth:

“ Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” (Revelation 4:8)

God is eternal, without beginning or end. The Apostle Paul wrote:

1 Timothy 1:17 … Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Notice the adjectives that describe our God. “Eternal, immortal, invisible, only wise”. God is without beginning or end. God is eternal. And in …

1 Timothy 6:14-16 … our Lord Jesus Christ: 15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; 16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.

Our God in Christ declares of Himself that He is

Revelation 1:8 … Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Several years ago the movie reviewer Roger Ebert began to doubt the existence of an eternal God. Raised a Catholic, he progressed in that faith to “altar boy”. Roger went to a school ministered by Nuns. I read his testimony at rogerebert.com. His testimony is – to me – rambling and restless. I am not mocking him. He is like many who have tried to understand the immensity of God, and have discounted the Creator because of it. Roger said:

“I’m still struggling with with the question of how anything could have no beginning and no end.”

Jeremiah 6:16 Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths …

In God’s command to His creation He never demands that we understand Him – just that we heed and obey Him. As a retired Airman I was commanded to do many things in the service to our country. Many of the things I was commanded to do I did not understand. My Commander never came down to my duty section and had a “town hall” meeting where he explained himself. The Commander was an a superior position to see a lot more of the picture than I was able to see. My Commander did not necessarily see the whole picture, but followed the chain of command because others higher than he had a better view of the problem and the solution.

We just did what we were told.

The God I serve is the Ultimate Commander. He is above all. He has no superior – He is the superior. The God of Scripture has no beginning nor end. As a human I may not agree with all God says, but He doesn’t ask that I agree – just believe and do. God asks that you accept Him as He is – and trust Him as God. The Prophet said:

Job 36:26 … God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.

And the Psalmist spoke “My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass. But thou, O Lord, shall endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.” (Psalm 102:11-12)

The Prophet Isaiah declared “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.” (Isaiah 40:28)

God is infinitely above us. He does not have to explain Himself nor justify Himself. What says Paul?

Hebrews 11:6 … without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

God commands that you “believe that I AM”. God commands that – whether we understand Him or not – we “diligently SEEK Him”. Not question, but seek.

Isaiah 55:6-9 … Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We have never experience “light years”, but scientists tell us this exists.
Few have seen “atoms”, though we know they are there.
I do not understand how the sun burns without burning up, yet it does.

God is like a circle. Draw a circle on a piece of paper. Can you point out the “corner” on this circle? No, because a circle, by definition, has no corner. Can you point out the “beginning and end” of a circle? No, you cannot. If there were a beginning and an end, then it would not be a circle but an arc. If it had a corner, it could be a triangle or a square. But it would not be a circle if it did not have no beginning and no end. God has no beginning nor end. He just is.

If we impose our human limitations on God, limitations that are NOT found in the Scripture, then that which we have made is NOT God. The God of Scripture is immutable, immortal, infinite in power and knowledge.

Whom God Calls, God Empowers

Jeremiah 6:16 Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths…

God has a way that He wants us to “stand”. We are to “stand” in His ways. He is before us, and beyond us. Our God knows what is best. A men’s journal I read daily is called WiRE had these wonderful words:

“God Almighty knows where we are. He sees us (Luke 12:6-7). He is with us (1 Corinthians 3:16). There is a plan. King David sang to God, “in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16). So, where we are—right now—is no accident. And until further notice (which may come), we’ve got to assume that where we are is where he wants us to be . . . for specific reasons, for his specific purposes.”

God told Jeremiah …

Jeremiah 1:5 … the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

What is harder for me to understand than the infinity of God? It is that this Infinite God of Scripture would deign to know a retch like you or I!

Just like Jeremiah, God knew you before you were ever formed in the womb. God determined that He had a purpose for your life. God saved you with a purpose. Jesus told us, His Church:

Matthew 5:14-16 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

When you humbled yourself and were saved, God called you to service. We are ambassadors for our God.

2 Corinthians 5:20 … we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

When Jeremiah heard the call of God he was frightened. He said,

Jeremiah 1:6 …. I cannot speak: for I am a child

To speak for God is an immense blessing – but also a great responsibility. When Moses was called of God from the burning bush to represent Him in Egypt, his first response was:

Exodus 3:11 Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

“Who am I?” I am nothing. But God can work with nothing. If you think yourself unworthy to speak for God, don’t fret. You were saved because you humbled yourself and leaned into God. Throughout my life I constantly realize “I of myself an NOTHING – I am but a child”. The Bible does not teach us that:

I can do all things …

That is not a complete thought. No, it is …

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

If God has saved you, God will empower you. If you are His Child by faith in Christ, you are called to be the Light, the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). Not in our power, but in His power.

The Bible warns against pride. Pride is like scales on the eyes of Saul on Damascus Road. Until the scales drop off (Acts 9:18) all that you can do is add to the darkness. The scales must come off.

Pride is a five letter word with “I” in the middle.

Pride says “I will live for ME”. God says:

Proverbs 8:13 … The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the {boasting} mouth, do I hate.

Proverbs 16:18 … Pride goeth before destruction, and an {puffed up} spirit before a fall.

God made us not for destruction, but for a purpose. “Clothe yourselves with humility” (1 Peter 5:5), not with arroganhce and pride. “God opposes the PROUD, but gives GRACE to the HUMBLE” (James 4:6).

Someone once said – and I agree with this:

“God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips His called.”

Our Minds Must Be Infused With God’s Word

Life is all about choices. Who will you listen to? How will you order your life? God offered ancient Israel a choice. He said:

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. But they said, We will not walk therein.

Will you seek truth from God, Who alone defines truth? Or will you get your truth from other sources. Our Lord Jesus prayed for His Church before going to the Cross to die for our sins. He prayed:

John 17:11-17 … And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil {one}. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Jesus Christ gave us the Word of God. He did not give us the word of the world, or the opinion of mankind, but the message God would have us hear. The words “it is written” are repeated some sixty three times in the New Testament. Jesus quoted Scripture, sharing the Word of God with His Church. The Church and the world are to be distinctly different. The world is a fallen and confused place.

God’s Word is sure.

When Israel regarded the Word of God and applied it’s truths to their lives, they were blessed. America has a blessed history because a people called “Pilgrims” came to this land, seeking a place where they could freely worship God. The words found on the Statue of Liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Used to mean something. But as we have drifted from God’s Word we have coarsened. G. K. Chesterton wrote:

“… let us say, for the sake of simplicity, (there is) a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, ‘I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.’ To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: ‘If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.’”

While Israel followed the Word of God, the nation was a blessed place.

Jeremiah 6:3 … The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

God blesses the nation, the city, the community, the church, the family that follows Him. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” (Psalm 33:12). As God’s people we need to heed and live by His Word. We need to tell others what God has said. We need to do what God says:

Jeremiah 6:16 … ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls

Ask of God what HE considers right and normal. Progressiveness and humanism is tearing our nation apart. We must listen to God’s Voice, His Word. We need to heed His warnings:

Jeremiah 6:7-8 … As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds. 8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

If we continue to chase God from our land, we shall reap what we have sown. Let us all repent, and turn to Him Who loves us so. The solution to what ails America is US, His people. Has not God promised?

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; THEN will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Oh, that God would heal His land. Let this healing begin with us, His people. May God touch your hearts with His Word and His Spirit. Amen and Amen!