THE BELIEVER’S PATH
W. Dickson
Psalm 16: 8–11; 119: 105; Jeremiah 6: 16 (to “your souls”); Hebrews 12: 12–14
It is a manifestation of the work of God in a believer that he would desire to be always in the path of the will of God, and to be in the path of the will of God involves dependence on God. There is a great need for dependence on God. The tendency is to fall back upon our own resources and our own strength to resolve the issues as to the path in which we should walk.
We tend to fall back perhaps on our own powers of analysis, and the determination of our own wills, but the, path of a believer is essentially a path of dependence. I would encourage the brethren to be more dependent, to cry to God continually in regard to their pathway through this world. These scriptures bring up the thought of the pathway of the believer through this scene, so that, we do not tread it with an uncertain step. To me it would be a reflection on the indwelling of the Spirit, if we reconciled ourselves to the thought that there must always be uncertainty as to our movements, and as to who could be certain as to the path in which a believer should walk in these days. It is a reflection on the Spirit to allow such thoughts, and these Scriptures bring out the wonderful sources of divine help and divine direction which give the believer certainty in his path.
There was a little publication which was a help to many of us in our younger days—it is still available I am sure in the bookcases of the elder brethren—by a beloved brother. Mr. M. W. Biggs, it is ‘The Christian’s Path in Days of Difficulty’. He pointed out that, no matter what the morass of evil that exists in this world, it is possible for a christian to find his true path despite the difficulty of the day; but linked with it there must undoubtedly be this feature of constant dependence. What comes out in the typical scriptures, and actually in the gospels as to the dependence of our Lord Jesus Christ as a Man here, is something that always enthralls the heart. The Lord Jesus was God. He was God as to His Person, but what comes out in the Scriptures indicates that He never called upon what He was in Deity to govern Him in His pathway here. It is a remarkable thing. The natural mind would say, Well, if He was God how could He not resolve for Himself any matter? And yet He went up in the mountain to be tempted by the devil, and many other instances I could quote, and what comes to light is His absolute dependence.
Younger brethren, you go to school and college, you take up your employment, and you know there are difficulties to be faced. I would encourage you to be dependent; be dependent even in regard to what you might say if you are faced with a certain situation; when men would dispute your right to a conscience in regard to the claims of God, be dependent as to what the Lord might give you to say at any such time.
So you have to think of the Lord Jesus; it says, “I have set Jehovah continually before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart rejoiceth, and my glory exulteth; my flesh moreover shall dwell in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt make known to me the path of life”. You ponder that statement, it is as if the Lord Jesus was receiving disclosures from His Father as to the pathway that would be in life, “Thou wilt make known to me the path of life”. Dear brethren, have you ever asked the Father for a disclosure to you of the path of life? You could say, Well, I know there is a certain pathway through this world which would lead me to material prosperity. Another pathway would lead to prominence in this world. Another pathway would lead to the satisfaction of my natural affections, my natural desires. But have you ever had a disclosure from the Father as to the path of life? The Lord Jesus as a Man here had that experience. We speak very, very reverently, but it was just as if the Lord clung in absolute, holy dependence on God so that He would not be diverted in any sense from the pathway of His will.
O, young brethren, find the path of life! Whatever you do, find the path of life; find that which nurtures your soul, nurtures your spirit, nurtures your affections in the things of God, so that the Scriptures become something to you, and as you read them your heart expands as you trace the features of Jesus. The path of life involves, too, what we said earlier as to the fellowship amongst God’s people. In this world today it is a path of death, but amongst God’s people it is a path of life. The assembly is a sphere of salvation, and of protection, and you will find in that path God’s “countenance is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore”. The path of life leads you to then “pleasures for evermore”. I find nothing so stimulating as we gather for the Lord’s supper on the first day of the week as to touch the pleasures for evermore, to know that the path of life has led to the place where the divine countenance beams in all its brightness, “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4: 6), to taste the pleasures that belong to eternity, and to feel our souls surging up in holy power and emotion as the living Head leads us into that vast realm of bliss where God shows His treasures, His wonderful thoughts and purpose. How many pathways beckon today. The Lord says, “broad the way that leads to destruction, and many are they who enter in through it”, but straitened is the way that leads to life, and they are few who find it (Matthew 7: 13, 14). But it is the path of life, and I trust we will be encouraged in it.
Now in Psalm 119 I wish to speak of “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”. I would like to emphasize, beloved brethren, the importance of the Holy Scriptures in the life of a believer if he is to walk in a right path. How do we value the Scriptures? How do we read them? It is quite a challenge to me personally as moving about amongst God’s people, how I tend to use the Scriptures to provide me with themes for ministry, instead of valuing the Scriptures as a lamp for my feet and a light unto my path. You know why you need a lamp and a light, do you not? When you go out on a dark night and you do not know if there is going to be something you will stumble over, you say, I will take a light. You know, this world is full of things you can stumble over. Jude says, “to him that is able to keep you without stumbling” (Jude 24). You do not want to stumble, dear brethren. When David took up the ark, it says that the oxen stumbled (2 Samuel 6: 6). God would have a believer that has the Spirit walk without stumbling. And how do you walk without stumbling? It says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet”.
Oh, the precious Scriptures!—and the precious ministry that is based on Scripture, giving its current application according to our needs; it is a lamp unto our feet. A matter comes up and you say, What am I going to do in that pathway? Where am I going to go in that pathway? You turn to the Scriptures. The Scriptures are an unfailing guide for any person as to the right pathway. You want to go into business? You say, ‘I want a lamp for my feet’; the Scriptures will guide you. You want to marry? you want to set up a home? The Scripture will guide you. You want to know who to walk with in Christian fellowship? The Scripture will guide you. There is not a thing that comes within the area of a believer’s responsibility but what the Scripture will give him guidance by the help of the Holy Spirit.
Much of the sorrow that has come in amongst brethren lies in the misinterpretation and the misapplication of Scripture. We should value the purity of it, value the fact that by the Spirit it is the expression of the mind of God to us in detail. It says, “a light unto my path”. Oh, to go through this world with a light for your path! Just to know what to side-step, and where to move and where to go, because you have the light of the Holy Scriptures. I would counsel my young brethren to read the ministry, but above all else read the Scriptures, and turn to them continually for guidance in regard to your pathway.
Also seek the help of the fathers, seek the help of your own father. There is nothing so delightful as a boy or a girl going to their father and saying to him, ‘Father, you are the head of the house, I would like you to direct me to a scripture that will help me in this matter that affects my pathway’. Noah put a light at the top of the ark, in other words, typically, he brought in for his household the scripture that met the exigencies of the moment.
In Jeremiah 6 we read, “Thus saith Jehovah—Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths, which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls”. As the brethren will know, Jeremiah writes in a day very similar to the day in which we live; there had been a complete breakdown among God’s people, conditions were very oppressive, he had been subjected to very much sorrow, and the people had departed and come under the yoke of the enemy. And he says here, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the ancient paths”. Now, beloved brethren, I think there is a need today to ask for the ancient paths. The ancient paths, of course, would refer primarily to the apostles’ doctrine, the ministries of the apostles and the prophets. It would also refer to what has come out since the inception of the recovery. Now I would like to ask a question, which I have asked a few times lately: Is everybody amongst us here at this time convicted that there was, and is, such a thing as the recovery of the truth? Are we all convicted that what took place early in the nineteenth century was a recovery of the truth initiated by the Spirit of God and directed from heaven by the Lord Himself? Are we all convicted about that?
I do not want to be critical, but I cannot see for myself how a person who was convicted that there was such a thing as the recovery of the truth under Mr. Darby and others could possibly go back to a clerical system. In the recovery of the truth under Mr. Darby, the signpost to the ancient path is set forth in his pamphlet, ‘The Notion of a Clergyman, Dispensationally the Sin Against the Holy Ghost’. And so, let us ask for the ancient paths. Let us see what has been wrought out in the recovery as to the truth of the assembly, the truth of what is for the pleasure of God, the great matters of the fellowship and the service of God. Let us seek the ancient paths, and walk in them, too; it says, “which is the good way, and walk therein”. The elder brethren in localities, fathers, have a great responsibility to teach younger brethren, to teach from the Scriptures and from the ministries the ancient paths, so that they walk in them. It is a good way; it says, “and ye shall find rest for your souls”. That is a beautiful touch. The Lord said in Matthew 11: 28, 29, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened ... Take my yoke upon you ... and ye shall find rest to your souls”, and here it is in Jeremiah. In Matthew 11 the Lord gave utterance to these words in the face of His rejection by God’s earthly people. You look round, and you think of brethren you once walked with and your heart goes out to them. You love the brethren; though you cannot walk with them, you love them; and you find rest in your soul in turning to the Lord.
As long as you are doing the will of God and keeping steadfastly to the ancient paths the Spirit of God has marked out, you will find it is a good way in which to walk, and indeed leads to the path of life.
In Hebrews 12: 12–14 it says, “Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the failing knees”; that would be a reference to prayer. Do your knees ever fail? Do your knees ever fail when you become weary of prayer because there is no answer? Well, it says, lift up the hands that hang down, and the failing knees; and make straight paths for your feet. There is the path of life; there is the path that is illuminated by the Scriptures; there are the ancient paths; but here is the straight path, a straight path for your feet. It says, “that that which is lame be not turned aside”. It is the responsibility of the shepherds in a place to look out for the lame sheep, so that they are not turned out of the way, “but that rather it may be healed”. Luke’s gospel is a great healing gospel, the grace that comes in to heal. Luke brings out; too, the sheep that went astray in chapter 15; it had gone out of the path, and the Lord speaks of Himself there as the Shepherd that went after the sheep in order to bring it back into the right path.
So it says, “make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be not turned aside; but that rather it may be healed. Pursue peace with all”. Brethren, there is no virtue in contention. A bondman of the Lord should not contend (see 2 Timothy 2: 24). You may say, Am I not to contend for the truth? Yes, you are to contend for the truth. A bondman of the Lord, a good soldier of Jesus Christ, contends for the truth. But it also says he “should not contend”. O, brethren, let us pursue peace with all, and not regard contention as a virtue. The need universally in our localities at the present time is peace, in order that conditions may exist for the building up of the saints in the truth and the restoration to the ancient pathways. Matters of righteousness come up that have got to be contended for, matters of fellowship, matters of principle, they have got to be contended for by faithful men. But, brethren, let us make peace our objective so that the Lord gets full scope to bring in what is for the blessing of His people.
The scripture then says, “and holiness”. In the reading a brother referred to what is objective. The note in Mr. Darby’s translation directs us to the fact that the word “holiness” here is not a sanctification outwardly but it stands in relation to a state. Holiness flows from the recognition of the Spirit’s witness to the water and the blood. A saint who recognised the Spirit’s witness to the water and the blood would be formed subjectively in holiness. The scripture adds “without which no one shall see the Lord”. Beloved brethren, we are looking forward to seeing the Lord tomorrow, if it is His will, if He tarry. What would a meeting be if we did not see the Lord? What would the Supper be if we did not see the Lord? That is why you leave your house in the morning; you leave your house in the expectation of seeing the Lord; but how do you see Him? With holiness, so that we are preserved here in purity of thought and purity of walk that provide the conditions for the Lord to come to us. May we encourage one another, old and young alike, to walk in the path of the will of God for His pleasure.
Address at Toronto
16 September 1978