FACING TODAY’S PROBLEMS

Lesson Material: Jer 6:14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
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.
17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

Text: Jer 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.

Introduction: Israel looked for answers, but rejected the counsel of God! Man seeks up-to-date, relevant answers to what he sees as problems peculiar to this sophisticated age, when, in fact, the problems are as old as the human race! The answers are still the same and they will never change.
Let us examine the words of our text;

I. WAYS: this always refers to a road to a selected destination.
A. In order to select the right path, one must be sure of where he wants to go.
Don’t set a short term goal; make the goal the FINAL destination.
(If your destination is Portland, and your goal is the first mountain top, you are going to be in for some real heavy traveling!
1. Do you just want to solve a problem, or do you want to live a life pleasing to God?
2. Do you want to be saved or just be a better person?

B. There is only ONE path to God. Other paths might be more appealing, but they wind up in the wrong places.
Mat 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

II STAND: Quit milling about and running to and fro, and take a good look at the situation.
A. Running toward this road and that, will get you nowhere!
Exo 14:13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will show to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
I Sam 9:27 And as they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Bid the servant pass on before us, (and he passed on,) but stand thou still a while, that I may show thee the word of God.
B. Going from counselor to advisor, to books, to tapes, to consensus among friends, will lead to much confusion, but no answers.
C. Becoming absorbed in grief, self-pity and manufactured perplexities, may lead to the ‘Nobody understands me’ syndrome; there may be a lot of breast-beating, but little movement toward the desired destination. (Like the experimental flying machine that jumped up and down, but went nowhere; It jumped, flapped, banged and roared, but only succeeded in tearing itself to pieces.)
D. Absorption in a self-appointed path is NOT the answer;
Acts 9:1 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
2 And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

Acts 9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Not until he was completely humbled and blinded, did he begin to see!
(Illustration: This is the story of an acquaintance. “I was an angry, belligerent person with a chip on my shoulder, and got into fights and was arrested over and over. It stopped when a judge made me stand before a crowded court room as he read every thing on my rap sheet, and I finally saw the kind of person I really was!)
The Samaritan Woman:
John 4:28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

III SEE: Perceive. Come to the realization that without divine guidance, your life will never achieve the peace you desire.

IV. ASK - For the old paths.
A. Sin and righteousness are constants. Situational ethics is the devil’s gospel to depraved men.
B. Ask signifies that the way might not be openly apparent i.e:
1. In a day of ‘child abuse’, should one chastise a child?
Pro 13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
2. What about chastity in today’s society?
I Thess 2:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
3. Alternate lifestyles?
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
4. In view of the political and international intrigue of today, should we still be honest?
Rom 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
5. Does social acceptance make sin OK?
3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
6 In the confusion of the religious world, does it matter WHICH church?
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
7. Aren’t ‘MY Needs’ the most important criteria I should consider?
(Your deceitful heart will lie to you about your REAL needs.
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?)

V. THE GOOD WAY: The things for which God’s people have stood and fought , are NOT irrelevant today but man has lost sight of their importance.

VI. WALK THEREIN
Illustration: The old couple who sit in their car and pore over maps and tour books, but never leave their driveway.

Look at the example set by Saul of Tarsus:
1. He was stopped on his wrong path.
Acts 9:3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
2. He saw (perceived) that something was wrong.
Acts 9:4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
3. He asked
Acts 9:6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
4. He walked therein:
Acts 9:8 And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
A. He was baptized -
Acts 9:18 And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.
B. He learned
Gal 1:11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

C. He witnessed
Acts 26:19 Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:
20 But showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.
D. He suffered when necessary
II Cor 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
E. he contended for the faith without compromising
Gal 2:11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
F. He kept his body under subjection;
I Cor 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
G. He never gave up; he finished his course
II Tim 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
H. He looked for the promise with a peaceful heart
II Tim 4:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.