THE PATH OF LIFE

J. A. Petersen

Psalm 16: 7–11; 2 Timothy 1: 8–11; Galatians 2: 18–21

We read in Psalm 16 and I wish to speak about “the path of life” that is referred to there; the psalm generally making reference to the Lord Jesus. It helps us to understand the Psalms to see that the first book of the Psalms is largely engaged with the Lord Jesus. It may be the second book of the Psalms will help us as Christians, and also the remnant that will be here after the saints are taken to glory; it will help them to see what God

can be to them in the time of their sufferings, and what God can be to you and me, that in everything the Lord Jesus must have the first place. This first book of the Psalms extends to the time of the incarnation, when the Lord Jesus said, “Behold, I come … To do thy good pleasure, my God”, Psalm 40: 7, 8. No other man has ever said nor could say such a thing as the Lord Jesus said as coming into the world. The issue in the gospel is really the will of God, and therefore our attention is focused on the One who accomplished that holy will for God’s glory. And I trust that God may give grace to each of us to submit to it. There are the details in your life and mine in which He has a will, but too He has a will in purpose in regard to His own matters. He has in mind to bless us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. That is the mind of God. The gospel is preached in view of persons having the greatest privileges.

So I would like to read verse 6 of the Psalm 16, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage”. Why should we leave these meetings with any complaint? The lines have fallen to us in pleasant places. It is what God can bring about among the saints. An occasion, such as we are now finishing, is intended by heaven to be a joy, it is intended by divine Persons to be joyful and happy. Someone mentioned in the service of God where I was this morning that He rejoices over His people with singing.

Zephaniah says that He rejoices over His people (Zephaniah 3: 17). So why should we not rejoice that God gives us a time of blessing and help! But then we have a responsibility, each of us; it says, “at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore”, and He has in view in the glad tidings that we might come into that through righteousness. That is where the path of life leads. The path of life, beloved, is on the other side of death. It is not just that you and I may find our way and path at the present time; you get that in Isaiah where he says, “This is the way, walk ye in it”, Isaiah 30: 21. The prophet says you will hear a voice behind you saying that. God will

give us direction in the path that we should take. But the great thought of the path of life is what is proceeding out of the death of Christ.

So the Lord is seen in dependent manhood in this psalm. It is hard to be understood that such a One, such a glorious Man would be found on His knees (Luke 22: 41) with His God to find a way through the great sorrows that lay ahead of Him, according to the will of God, which involved His death. We get one of the great experiences of death in this psalm and that is burial. It is a solemn consideration particularly to those of us who are getting older, not only that our lives are finished but that we will be buried—it is a solemn matter to think about; and the Lord thought of it. There was a great servant amongst us, who knew in a few days the Lord would take him; and he told those surrounding his bedside, I will be buried. He came to it saying, ‘I will be buried, but the great comfort is that Jesus was buried’. Unlike any other burial He did not see corruption. That connects with the glad tidings that Paul brought to light. In 2 Timothy 1, “our Saviour Jesus Christ … brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings”. That is the subject of the glad tidings, life and incorruptibility, what is incorruptible in Christ. He is the One who is preached here tonight.

One of the great attributes of piety that came out in Christ. He “has been believed on in the world”, 1 Timothy 3: 16. Are you among the believers? Are you, brethren who ministered, including myself who took part, believers? Are we believing believers? Are we in faith with regard to what we say and minister so rightly? What a word it is to us that we are men and women of faith as Paul was. He says, “but in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. That is how that servant spoke. Prior to that he was persecuting the brethren, persecuting the assembly, establishing Judaism everywhere that he could, but he says, “in that I now

live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. It comes down to you and to me; I cannot, nor can anyone else be saved for you.

And God is challenging us, although we may be believers, that we may be believing believers. Our brother brought in today, in passing, the last verse of John 20, “that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name”. That is the subject this afternoon, life and vitality that cannot be touched by death.

What we were at here for some three days were matters concerning eternity. However much practical wisdom may have come out, yet the truth is that the life that is in Christ Jesus cannot be touched by death. That is a very important matter, that what we preach tonight is about a Man who has died and risen, but in death was not corruptible. Think of the greatness of the One who went into death. He did not see corruption but He broke the power of him who had the power of death, that is Satan, the wicked one. He saw that and He broke the power of it. When the Lord Jesus stood at the grave of Lazarus He grieved. Why did He weep? He not only wept for the loss that these sisters had, but because of the power of death over the souls of men and women that stood around that grave. The Lord Jesus wept as He saw the power that Satan had to use death against men, and against believers too, the power of it. We have to face the article of death, but thank God we do not have to face the power of death; it has been broken by the Lord Jesus. The Ark stands in the Jordan which has no water in it as we may be called across that river. Jeremiah says, “how wilt thou then do in the swelling of the Jordan?”, Jeremiah 12: 5. How will you do when the waters rise up? And they will rise up, if the Lord does not come, with every one of us, and how will you do? You have to consider that. How will you do when those waters rise up, the power of it? Your faith and trust is in the Lord Jesus who broke the power of the devil, He broke it. He did not see corruption. What power was in

that blessed Man. What power was in Him as He died on the cross in outward weakness and shame and degradation, and all that can be heaped on a man. They put Him between two thieves so He was said to be crucified with the wicked and the ungodly, but in it all was the manifestation of the One who brought to light life and incorruptibility. That is much needed amongst us. We are living in a very corrupting society and the enemy is using means of communication. Some of the advertisements in the media for merchandise have corrupt tendencies. So that Satan has in mind to corrupt the people of God, and sometimes it comes in amongst us. And so we need grace from God to be protective ourselves, that Christ may be everything to our hearts.

These psalms are to enrich us, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places”. Let us not let them down in the few days that lie before us! It has fallen to us in pleasant places, that is to say, in the company of our brethren; with our Bibles open, we are enabled to be engaged in the things of God and in the service of God. We had a wonderful time in our meeting this morning, right here in this room, in this hotel, God gave us something, and we thank God for that. So we cannot say that our meetings are not public, they are public in a certain sense, but see to the power in which the gatherings are held, and whether there is faith for what is being said and brought about so wonderfully by God Himself. But do we have faith for it and do we have faith to believe in the glad tidings tonight, the glad tidings of God concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord?

I turn to the scripture in 2 Timothy for a moment. I have referred to it, for God is saying to us that we are in these days, in 2 Timothy days. We thank God He put it in the minds of His servants in the power of the Spirit to give us ministry to help us through these 2 Timothy days. God took up a young man, Timothy, not an older man. Paul was an older man, he called himself “the aged” at

one point, so there are those too that are older. And we need faith too, much of it. If we are going to help anybody we have to be men and women of faith—“All these died in faith”, Hebrews 11: 13. The first man that is mentioned in Scripture as having faith was Abel. Abel never said one word that we have recorded in Scripture that I could find, but his blood still speaks. All down through the generations before the Lord Jesus came and after He came the blood of righteous Abel speaks. What we are will speak louder than the words that we give.

And Abel shed righteous blood; it pointed to the blood of Jesus. See what it is this whole matter of faith, it began with a man whose blood was shed. It pointed to the blood of Jesus, and everything rests on the efficacy of His blood that was shed at Calvary’s cross. “He who saw it bears witness”, says John the apostle (John 19: 35). Abel’s words are not recorded but his blood speaks. He gave up his life; he had to give it up so quickly, in a moment of time, to vengeance and jealousy. Let us see to it that there is no vengeance and jealousy among the saints of God. And next thing there are parties and all those kind of things that are against the assembly of God.

We belong to a great vessel the assembly. That involves that there might be right speaking, but also involves that we have an appreciation of the blood of Jesus. How can we preach the gospel without mentioning the blood of Jesus? Without shedding of blood there is no remission, but “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”, 1 John 1: 7. How unrighteous you have been and I have been, and the only way it can be cleansed is not by speeches but through the blood of Jesus Christ, and our faith in that blood. That life was poured out, holy, sinless, blameless, pure and righteous, that was the blood that was shed. I do not think the blood of Jesus was innocent blood, it was righteous blood that He shed.

Pilate’s wife said, “Have thou nothing to do with that righteous man”, Matthew 27: 19. He was righteous. His blood was shed on Calvary’s cross for sinners. The world stands in reconciliation today because of what He did, but, beloved, it will avail you nothing unless you repent and believe in the glad tidings.

Then it says He was buried, not by the twelve, not by the apostles. He was buried by two persons who were hardly known, they took His body in love and affection and they buried it in a new tomb. Think of these things written in John’s gospel. Think of the Lord, He did not even have a showy burial but He had these faithful men. Are you a faithful man or a faithful woman that can in a crisis do something that is necessary for Christ. Paul was taken up from his course of persecuting the saints and converted, and he writes in 2 Timothy 1 of what “has been made manifest now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings”. He has appeared out of death. How important the forty days are. The Lord Jesus was out of death; life went through in Him. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”, John 1: 4. That life went through death; it was manifested in the forty days.

What did the Lord Jesus do? He assembled with the brethren. What are you doing and what am I doing? Are we assembling with the Lord’s people? That is where the help is. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ did as Man when He arose from among the dead. He assembled with them, that is what it says. He is leading to the great thought of the church that He has, the assembly or the church. The Holy Spirit had not yet come, but I believe the assembly in all its fulness was formed when the Holy Spirit came here in Acts. But the Lord Jesus showed us how to assemble; he assembled with them all the days He was here. Our brother brought up about the midweek meetings but the Lord was assembling every day. What a model He is for us and how as we come together we pray in the assembly and, beloved, it would be well to understand what was said in the closing ministry of our brother Mr. Taylor, Snr, that we act in the light of the

assembly. We are not the assembly but we act in the light of it in all that we do. When we speak of assembly prayer it is in the light of the assembly. When we speak of the Lord’s supper which is set in the assembly, it is in the light of it that we are holding the ground for all. The Lord is thinking of all men, and He has His assembly here. The gospel must lead to the assembly. How do you get into the assembly? a brother said to Mr. Raven. He answered,

‘Through the Lord’s supper’. That is the concern, and it is by the Holy Spirit.

Preaching at Bunnell/Ormond Beach
22 December 2002