your Bible with you. We provide one right in front of you should be a Bible next to those songbooks. And we are going to dismiss the young people to their junior church class downstairs, some of the workers will go with them. And but let's turn over to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah, if you will, in chapter number six, Jeremiah, chapter number six, I'd like you to turn there. And then when you find it, I'd like you to go to the New Testament also. and go with us to 2 Timothy chapter number 3. 2 Timothy chapter number 3. So we're going to read that second one first, and then go back to Jeremiah. My message will come out of the book of Jeremiah, so if you're choosing between the two, go to Jeremiah chapter number 6. Jeremiah chapter number 6. But I'm going to read to you 2 Timothy chapter 3. As we look at this, it says, this know also, this know also that in the last days perilous, that means difficult, dangerous times shall come. This is the type of day it's describing our day right here. So what is this going to look like? In verse number two, it says, for men shall be lovers of their own selves. This is today. You don't need me to give you the examples. You know, this is the truth. Goes on to say, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness. So there's still churches running. form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. What does the Lord say? From such, turn away. That describes the day we're living in, and very much similar to Jeremiah's day. Go now to Jeremiah chapter 6, please. Jeremiah chapter 6. His day was a dark day. He preached all this time, and you can read the whole book, and you'll find that he really didn't have a lot of converts. And at the end of it, Jerusalem is destroyed by Babylon. He is living in the last days of the nation, the southern tribes of Israel, as they're hanging on. The northern tribes were taken over in 722 B.C., and this is 586 B.C., and Nebuchadnezzar's army is marching. You can almost hear the steps. And he's crying out to those people in an awful dark day. He says in verse number 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. Let's have a word of prayer. We thank you Lord for this time together. I pray that you'd please help this message to be helpful and clear. We pray for your power, your Holy Spirit's work. Guide me as I preach, Lord, to say the things you want me to say, for it's in Christ Jesus name we pray. Amen. It is sometimes as outstanding or really just surprising the depths of sin of this world. I look at what the woke community is doing now and I say, I can't believe the depravity I just, it's amazing to me, really. Like things we thought were never gonna happen, not only have they happened, but they've gotten a lot worse past that than I ever thought. And if you've noticed, we're not woke here, amen. We're not woke because God isn't woke. Not in the terms that they're defining that. And we live in a day that is disrespectful to God. I don't know if you've seen the little video passed around that Ray Comfort, I don't agree with him on everything, but he put together a little film where down over there is at the Golden Globes Award. They're mocking God in their Hollywood gathering together, some of the most wicked people in all the world. And they're mocking God. Maybe you saw this. If you haven't, see my wife and she'll give it to you. And then he goes on to, Within three or four days of that mocking of God, here comes the fires that burn up Hollywood and burn up a lot of Los Angeles. It's on fire. There are stories now, as you've been listening to the news, of people that are famous actors running out of their homes and being pulled out of their homes. It's really a disaster. He doesn't know, like we could not tell. Is it really the judgment of God? It is sad that when God's judgment does come, and Israel knew this, that it comes on the evil end on the good. But he marks out that, points out in that little film, that little segment, podcast or whatever he called it, that the answer to it, could solve it, is if we just had a great rain. They've had more rain in the last few years in Los Angeles than in record years. But oh, it won't rain right now. But he asks the question, who controls the rain? It is God, in the hands of God. Now we believe in a God of the Bible, don't you? Amen? And that God is not a God who looks away, standing away, looking and doesn't have anything to do with us. He is a God who's very involved in and he's even taking care of the details of our lives and and providentially carrying and moving as the lady is saying, no matter where I go, he's always with me. He leadeth me, as the psalm says in Psalm 23. But we. We know that God does judge people. What's the answer? What is the answer? And it just seems like sometimes it gets like they take over every university. I mean, it started out with just evolution, and we're combating evolution, and now it's all of the rest of this extremisms of environmentalism and of this pagan kind of immorality rampant in the schools where they're promoting those who say they are enlightened, they're woke, they can handle this immorality and this wickedness and this acceptance of people's sins. And God is not accepting that. So what is the Christian to do? Now it's on television, it's everywhere, you can hardly watch a program that doesn't have one character on there that's a homosexual or lesbian, standing in direct opposition to the God of all the creation, in rebellion of how God made a person to be, in the sex that you were born with, and desiring and rebelling against God. The Bible says in Romans chapter one, God doesn't accept it. But what is a Christian to do? And the answer is here, it's very clear. The answer to all wokeness is the old-fashioned gospel of Jesus Christ. The answer is right here. Go to Jeremiah. Let's look at this passage. He begins with some things to remember. He talks in the previous verses, if you can go through the first part of this book, about an education that's perverse, a corrupt government, and pulpits that are polluted, and people that are defiled in his country. But then he says, hey, let's stop and remember. Remember some things. Some old paths that used to be important. Some things which today seem to be gone, thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the way and see and ask for the old paths. The old paths. Where is the good way? And walk therein. Are we saying about it this morning? We've put it on these posters for you to see that in opposition or in answer, you might say to the wokeness of this world and the culture that's trying to drain you of your morality, here is a church, maybe I hope many other churches that are stopping and saying, the answer is to go back to the old way, to seek out those old paths, the good way, the right way. Seek them out and find those and then you'll, let's stand in those areas. There's some old ways that people are trying to change, they're trying to change salvation. The old fashioned salvation which came from the Old Testament and the New Testament, a consistent message throughout all of the scripture is taught that we as sinners, now that's not very enjoyable. You came to church today, got all dressed up for me to tell you that you're a sinner. and that you're wicked, right? And the answer is, yes, sir. That's what we are, all of us. And if you're a sinner, you're just like the rest of us. Born with a nature to sin, we soon disobeyed God. And if you go through all of the commands of the Lord, you can maybe find many of them that we have disobeyed individually, which makes us guilty. And in our day today, we're told that the guilt is the evil thing. Let's just get rid of the guilt and everything will be okay. But the guilt is not an evil thing. You say, I've got an emotional distress or an emotional illness. No, your emotions are working just fine. They're representing the fact that you feel guilty for your sins. That's all good. Because we are in fact guilty. And the judgment of God is coming, whether or not the fires that we see back in California are really handled by God, or just the fact that we live in a very difficult world that is sold under sin. We don't know what God is doing until God reveals Himself. But there is a greater fire that's coming. Far worse than anything they're experiencing in Hollywood and Los Angeles. There is a fire that will not be quenched. This fire, I believe, will be put out eventually. And I believe that those will be conquered. And I believe that God, with His mercy, will send the rains that are necessary. But friend, listen to me. The fire of hell cannot be quenched. He says many times in the Gospels, the voice of Jesus where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. In Revelation it says the smoke of their torment ascended above forever and forever. Friends, listen, there's a judgment that's coming. And all who have sinned deserve that judgment. Every single sinner In the book of Psalms, I think it's in chapter 9 or 10, we read it in Bible devotions, Debbie and I, the other day, it says, the soul that sinneth it shall die, and it will be turned, every nation that is against God will be turned into hell. I cannot be an honest preacher if I didn't preach on hell, because Jesus preached on hell seven times more than He ever mentioned heaven. He was warning them of His age to turn from this wicked thing that you're doing. Turn to God for salvation and turn from an everlasting hell to an everlasting life in Jesus Christ. You get down there and you sit in a church that tells you everything's okay and winks at you and says it doesn't matter what you believe, you're going to be accepted in God. You're in a church that's full of lies. And I am going to tell you the truth, because God's Word is truth and it compels me, because I care for your soul, that I will say that the soul that dies in its sin ends up paying for sins, and the judgment of hell is greater than you could ever imagine. And because of what God says, I compel, I beg, come to that old-fashioned salvation. There are not ten salvations. In Acts 4, it tells us that there's only one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. In John 14, verse 6, He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. He tells us you can't get there by your good works, no matter how good you've been. He says, for by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. He tells us, though, in that same passage in Romans 3, that was verse 20. Verse 23, it says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Verse 24, being justified freely by His grace, salvation is free, cannot be earned. Ephesians tells us that He makes us to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Then He says, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Titus chapter 3 tells us, not by works of righteousness, in verse 5, which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. There's only salvation at the hands of Jesus Christ. You try to go down a different path to get yourself to eternal heaven, and you'll find that it might be woke, it might be visible, it might be cool, it might be fancy, up to date, and you can find a lot of other words, but I say, friend, hey, let's go back and find the old way, the old path, the old time way. where a sinner says, I'm a sinner and I agree with God about my sin and I want to turn and come back to Jesus. And they walk the aisle with tears and say, I want that salvation that the Bible talks about. And the Lord says, hey, it's like a fountain flowing freely. It's open for you and for you and for you and for you. And all of us that are saved already, I got saved in 1986, and this could be the day you got saved. But all of us came the same way, because there's no other salvation. It's not a Baptist salvation. It's not a Methodist salvation. It is a Bible salvation. It is a God-given salvation. And it's the only salvation. It is the old-time way. There are some things about that old-time way that I think we should seek. If you're here and you're not saved, you need an old-fashioned salvation. I think we shouldn't change our minds also about the Scripture. The Bible tells us with a security that we have the words of God. You might think of these later, but Psalm in chapter 12, it tells us that God has given us His Word. It says every word of God is pure in Proverbs 30 verse 5. It says in chapter 12 of Psalms, Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this day and forever. It'll never disappear. It's never going to be buried on plates in the earth. It'll never hide. Salvation has been available from the time when God made it plain in Genesis 3, verse 15. And it's always been available, and it comes through the Word of God. He says, Receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your soul. And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. Don't change your mind about the old-fashioned Bible. The Bible is right no matter who tells you otherwise. The people at school tell you, you and an ape came from the same origin. And the answer is wrong. They're wrong. The Bible is still right. It doesn't matter what they try to purport. God is still right. They say if you have a couple of surgeries, then you become a girl if you're a guy. And you know what? But every molecule of your body, if they looked at your DNA, still says you are what God made you at the beginning of your life. And it doesn't matter what they try to fool you and lie to you and tell you. God's Word is still right. And all of the world could be wrong. Let me say another word about that. Every church can go into apostasy and God's word will still be right. You may be here and you've been hurt by churches in the past. I've been hurt by past in the things that have happened in the dynamics of a church and people that get power and influence that are not right with God. And friends, you may have been hurt somewhere along the line. And if you're here and you're saying, he's talking about me, I'm talking about a lot of people that have seen me. And they come into my office and tell me stories. And it grieves my heart that God's churches would ever be infiltrated with people that have the wrong kind of ideas and concepts. And I'll tell you where it comes from. It comes from leaving the Word of God and following after man's own ideas and being influenced by the culture instead of taking the Bible and moving culture according to the Bible. I almost fell off. Let's not give up on the Bible. Let's not give up on separation. The old-fashioned way still works. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what concord hath he with Belial? Listen, he goes on and says, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you and be a father unto you. And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. So the Lord said, hey, separation is good. They say, but pastor, I want to fit in at school. Hey, that's not a good idea. Young people are here, you teenagers, listen to me. One of the worst things you could ever do is say, I'm going to live my life in order to fit in with the school. You're letting some bozo, some ignorant person in entertainment or in advertisement tell you how to dress and how to talk and how to think and what music to listen to. Hey, they're telling you, you can sleep around and you can be okay. You will not. The Bible says ye reap what ye sow. Separation does good. Separation builds a good marriage. A marriage like what God has given to Debbie and I, how we've never known any other person but one another. I've never been with another woman. By God's grace, we'll live our entire lives that way till death do us part. Separation is a good thing. You want a 100% plan to never have a problem with these diseases that come around our society that are associated with that lifestyle. I'll tell you what it is. It is an old-fashioned way. It is the way that was ignored in the time of Jeremiah. It was the judgment of God where people were bereaved and thousands were slain in that awful destruction of Jerusalem and all of them carried by tens of thousands over to Babylon. And a young Daniel, probably 12 years old, watching his family being killed, watching his house being burned, carried off, and he still stood for the right because he found the old way in a wicked time. He found an old way and he stood in it. I wish we had more time to go on, but I want to say one more. We ought not to give up the old paths concerning our prayer time. The Bible says, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their own ways, their wicked ways. He said, then I'll hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. So my first point is the remembering. The rest of the points will go quicker, but let's look at what this verse says. If you look at verse number 16, he says, first of all, let's remember. Secondly, let's rehearse. He says a few things that He tells us to do. He says, stand ye in the ways. When your Bible talks about standing, it's talking about holding the ground. It's like an army who is holding your place and not giving in and not giving in. And there's no way for the enemy to get past that line. We are the front line today. The churches are getting smaller. The people are getting careless. And the groups of people that are standing for the Lord Jesus Christ are even fewer and far between. It's hard to get another church even around the town to stand for the things politically that we ought to stand for. It's hard to get people to stand for separation. It's hard. It is difficult. So friends, hey, get the old paths and stand for God. Secondly, he says, see. He says, stand ye in the ways and see. There is a seeing in the Bible that is not physical. It's seeing with the mind. So in different languages, it's expressed differently. And then I studied Latin and they have the word video, video, we pronounce it like our video machines. That means to see with your eyes. And then he had the word Cerno, C-E-R-N-O, Cerno, which means not to see. It means, it's translated see in English, but it's not with your eyes, it's with your mind. We use that in the word discern. We discern something, but Latin, it means to see. It means, aha, I see. It doesn't mean just with your eyes. It talks about with your heart. And the Bible has truths in it that are not meant to just be noticed and be acknowledged and say, I think you're right. I acknowledge those things. The Bible wants it down deep in your heart and in your mind where you repent of sin. Even as a Christian, you turn and you say, I want to be right with God every place and time in my life. Interesting that he says to see. He says in the word of this verse, it says to ask for the old paths. There is an asking. There's a method of obtaining things from God, and God says it comes by prayer. So as we set our course this year, what we're looking for is that in the middle of a dark world where wokeness is taking over everywhere around us. Where it's even controlling, I mean, whole companies are making decisions based on this instead of any other reason. It's ridiculous. It will not last. It cannot last. But in the middle of that, there ought to be a group of Christians who say, it doesn't matter what the world tells me, I'm fine in the old-fashioned way. I'm going to find God's way, the good way. I'm going to stand. I'm going to see it with my heart. I'm going to seek after it in prayer. And then he says there's a securing. In the end of the verse it says, Walk there in exercise. So don't be a bystander in Christianity, get involved. Come and be involved, become faithful to church and the other church services, come and be involved in the ministries of the church. Let's go get them, the others that are needing us, that are in need of the salvation that God offers to all mankind, the freedom from sin's guilt because of the blood of Jesus Christ. We have that message. So we have here today a remembering and a rehearsing. But if I could give you two more points and just quickly the result. Here's the result. Look at the verse. It says in verse number 16, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in a ways and see and ask for the old paths wherein is, where is the good way and walk therein. And ye shall find rest for your souls. Well, wait a minute. Do you know that in the book of Jeremiah, None of what Jeremiah's ministry was ever stopped the judgment of God on Jerusalem. In fact, the book leaves Jeremiah really out in a lurch. The leaders of that time took him against the command of God and against his own will down into Egypt. and where we lose track of him, but probably he was killed in Egypt because of the kind of prophecies. If you go down to Egypt, your life is going to be taken. And the book ends that way. You say, but pastor, it doesn't look good for Jeremiah. I'll tell you what, it does look good for Jeremiah. Wherever he was when he was quiet and died in some lonely place, he entered into heaven's glory to the attention of all the angels. Not a man who was known by the world and not a man who was carried on with all of the great exploits and the massive numbers that converted to his way, but a man who was totally faithful to the vision God had given him. Never varied once. He had such an unpopular message. His message was against the culture of the day. It was against the desires of his people. It was even seeming anti-patriotic of Jerusalem, and yet he was faithful to preach it. Listen to me, we live in a bad day. This is not even the same country where I was raised. Man, back in the 70s, you could be anywhere, and if you were misbehaving, your neighbors would spank you. Right? And then you go home and if you told your parents, your parents would spank you again. We didn't lock our doors. Our keys were in our cars. And the day we're living in has become perilous times. And when you complain, you'd have to include, because men are lovers of them own selves. That's clear. They don't even care. They don't care about their offspring. They kill their unborn babies. They don't care about their families. They aren't raising them right. Men are trusted with political positions, but yet they exploit them for their own usage. They don't care about the people they represent. They care only about their own selves. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers. We live in a very wicked day. But yet if you'll find those old paths, the Bible says you can sail right through as if you're finding rest for your soul. Bible says in the days of Genesis 6, the days of Noah, men only thought evil. Then in the New Testament it says, when the coming of the Lord shall come, he says it's gonna be like the days of Noah. But Noah raised three kids in the middle of that kind of day. And they followed him into the ark. So a Christian, we can stand totally resilient to this world's evil. Wokeness has no power over the Christian life. It has no power over the things of God. And friend, you and I can live this life in the middle of a dark day as if we're at rest. My soul is saved. I know I'm going to heaven because of Jesus Christ. And I'm resting day by day in His great Word. And then in conclusion, look at the rest of the verse. But they said, We will not walk therein. We could call this the response. But in conclusion, it comes up to the individual. Now, friend, I'm going to tell you this. I'm going to live for the Lord by the grace of God, no matter what anybody does. No matter if you want the world and you say, I will not do what that Bible tells me to do. It doesn't matter, I'm going to still, by the grace of God, humbly as I can, determined, I'm going to find that old way, and I'm going to walk. Even if I have to walk alone, Danny. Look, if I have to walk alone, hey Matt, if nobody else will walk with me. Are you following what I'm saying? Even if I pay all the price of everything I have. Jeff, I'm going to walk in the old way. even if nobody, Andy, will walk with me. Jim, it doesn't matter what the world does. It doesn't matter what's on the news. It doesn't matter what is cool or fancy or what the world approves of. Even if you have to go alone, who will walk in the old ways? If you're here and you don't know Christ as your Savior, I talked about salvation. I so much want you to get saved today. I'm gonna give you an opportunity to do so, but listen, Christian, what I need and what God needs, really, who cares what I need, but what God needs is others to say, Pastor, sign me up. I want that old way. It doesn't matter what the world says, what anybody likes, or if I have to walk alone. It doesn't matter if I'm the only one in my household. At the beginning, I believe God will do a great work, but sign me up, I'm gonna walk in that old way. And this morning, I'd like you to make a promise to God, not to me, promise God. I'm going to find. I'm going to secure it. I'm going to seek it. I'm going to stand for it. The old fashioned way, let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the blessings of your word that even in very difficult times, Lord, in perilous times are ahead and they're presently with us. People are abandoning you and your judgment has to come. According to your Bible, the judgment of this country has to be real. But Lord, we want to have some Christians here, families that say, as for me and for my house, we're going to find those old fashioned ways we're going to serve the Lord. Be with this invitation. Friend, listen, if you're with your heads