Choose the Path
Paul Wilson
Table of Contents
Choose the Path
"Savior! lead us by Thy power
Safe into the promised rest;
Choose the path, the way whatever
Seems to Thee, O Lord, the best:
Be our Guide in every peril,
Watch and keep us night and day,
Else our foolish hearts will wander
From the straight and narrow way."
(Hymn 42, Appendix; Little Flock Hymn Book.)
Before opening my Bible, I would like to make a remark or two to the young people on these lines in the hymn, "Choose the path, the way whatever seems to Thee, O Lord, the best."
I suppose there is not a time in all our life's history when we are more apt to take the reigns in our own hands, and try to plan our own lives for ourselves, than when we are young. We do not know what is ahead, and how gracious that we do not. On the other hand, in love to your souls, dear young people, I speak as one who has had some experience; I speak as one who has often chosen my own way-I do not say a wicked way. But, Oh, how many things there are in life where we have to make a choice! I find today, particularly, more than when I was a boy, that young people are apt to think that they know all the answers. They seem to think that they are wiser than their parents, and wiser than their elders. The thought of really committing their path unto the Lord, and seeking the Lord's direction, is seldom entertained.
Recently I learned of some young men who decided to move from one city to another. I do not say there was anything wrong with that, or that a Christian should never move. But I felt there was little exercise before the Lord, and the seeking of His guidance. There are always human arguments for and against making a move-"There are good opportunities there; The money that can be made; The jobs that are obtainable." But how much better to live in the attitude of the hymn, "Choose the path..." We little realize what fateful consequences hang on our decisions. We give up a job, give up a location and move to another city. Perhaps we choose a place where there is a Meeting; we choose a place where we feel that we can get to the meetings. That is all well and good. But, do you know that God knows the end from the beginning, and He knows the circumstances that lie ahead in your path and mine?
We had a relative, now with the Lord, who left a certain city years ago. He left that city and moved away for the reason of personal advantage. He got a good job, and he was well liked where he worked. He got ahead; but he got into the world in his job. You say, "He might have gotten into the world anywhere with his job." Yes, but I have the feeling that the job took him into the world. The question is, Did he seek the Lord's guidance? Was the man's thought, "Choose the path, the way whatever seems to Thee, 0 Lord, the best?" At one time he said to another, "I am very deeply involved in the world, and I wish I could get out; but I don't know how." Shortly thereafter the Lord took that dear one home to Himself. He got out, but not the way he thought. Dear young people, please seek the Lord's direction in every move of your life. I speak as one who has made mistakes. I have made some moves; some the Lord had me make. I look back at one-it seemed like I should make it. To this day I doubt if I had the Lord's mind. But, when you once make a move, remember you cannot change it!
I want to turn to the book of Deuteronomy. Remember that God, in speaking to children of Israel of old, chose to direct everything for them. They did not have a choice, we may say, as to any type of a garment they wore. They could not wear a garment composed of woolen and linen. They could not sow their fields with just any kind of seed. The Lord looked after every detail of their lives. Why? Deut. 7:6, tells us: "For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God; the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." Do you see why God chose for them? He chose them! He chose them out of all people to be a special people of His. Was not that signal blessing? Was not that something desirable, something worthwhile, to have God choose them?
Now, He says, in verse 7, "The LORD did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because He would keep the oath He had sworn unto your fathers, bath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." God had chosen them! Remember, dear young people who know the Lord, it is not a matter of your choosing the Lord. He chose you! He set His love upon you! Keep that in your mind, and it will alter all your thinking concerning the Lord and how you belong to Him. If He chose you, what a treasure you must be for Him! And the One who chose you, loves you-He says so! Oh, what a sad state Israel got into in the days of Malachi, when they said to God, "Wherein hast Thou loved us." Does a Christian ever get that far down the ladder-does he sometimes get to the place where he questions the Lord's love, or the display of God's love for him? I fear he does.
The Lord says, "I did it because I loved you. I chose you." Now, if He has done all that, should not we be willing to let Him choose for us? If you had an all-wise earthly father-the wisest man in the state, and the richest man in the state-who loved you immensely; and, in his great love for you, he wanted to do the very best for you: With all the riches of the state at his command, or any portion of it he needed at his command to use for you, would you not want to let him choose for you? Would you not come with your problems to him? I heard a young Christian say one time, "I cannot bother the Lord with the little things." That shocked me! The Lord is interested in all the problems of your life-the little things as well as the big things. And you can come to Him and seek His guidance in every one of them.
I want to pass over to Deuteronomy, chapter 12. God was here giving them instructions on how they were to conduct their lives when they came into the land of Cannan. Verse 2: "Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God. But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His Name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither shalt thou come." Verse 8, "Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes."
Some years ago, I went into the eastern part of the United States, and was invited into the home of a Christian girl. I knew her father when he was still single; so, I knew the girl's history. She was the Lord's. She broke bread. She was gathered to the Lord's Name. Then, she moved east, to a place where there was a Meeting. These are things you could say for her. She married a man who was a Christian, but who would not walk in the path she was in. She invited me to her home for dinner one night. He was there, and the first thing he tried to do was to get into an argument. He said, "I want you to tell me whether I should leave such and such a church and go with my wife to that Meeting." It was a challenge thrown at me. I said, "I want to tell you one thing: I cannot tell you where to go. But, I will tell you something else with it You have no right to do as you please! If you are a Christian, you should seek the Lord's guidance as to where you should go."
You know, there is a great fallacy in this land, that every man has a right to worship after the dictates of his own conscience. That is false! Now, if they mean he should have the right to do it without interference, that is another matter. But, speaking before God, I say that no man has a right to worship God as he pleases! "Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes." If you want to find a book in the Word of God that is full of sorrow, declension and ruin, it is the book of Judges. And the key note of the book of Judges is, "There was no king in Israel: Every man did that which was right in his own eyes." I heard a dear brother say one day, "When every man does that which is right in his own eyes, everything is wrong. "
Now, they were going into a land that had been occupied by idolaters. The former occupants had built altars wherever they chose. They had built all kinds of groves and things connected with idolatry; they chose the prominent places. He told them that when they got there, they were to break down all these places. If the heathen had chosen all these different places according to what was right in their own eyes, the Lord's people were not to do so. They were to find out the place in that land which the Lord their God should choose. God was going to choose for them. I wonder, sometimes, how many Christians ever think of that. When the apostles were sent to get ready for the last Passover, to prepare the Passover feast for the Lord. Peter did not say, "Lord, I know a good place." John did not say, "I know a better one." They said, "Where wilt Thou that we prepare?" If you are a Christian and do not know where the Lord would have you go to remember Him in death, to hear the Word preached, and to hear the Word of God ministered, you are in a bad way. You had better be seeking your Bible and the directions from it, and crying unto the Lord to show you. "Choose the path, the way whatever seems to Thee, O Lord, the best."
I wonder, dear young people who are at the Lord's Table, do you know why you are there? I find that some young people who are brought up in the Meetings often take it as a matter of course. Many of them have never had any exercise about it. There are some that come in later who know more about it, but not always. I heard one Christian say, when asked how he happened to get into the meeting, "I married into it." If you do not know any more than that about it, you do not know the first principles. "Choose the path." "Where wilt thou that we prepare?" The Lord has a right to name the place! At one time, it was at Shiloh; at another time it was at Jerusalem. But the Lord made it abundantly clear where that place was. Now, you will hear such arguments as this: "But there are Christians elsewhere." I fully grant it. You will hear the argument that there are godly people elsewhere. I fully grant it. You will also hear the argument that there are more devoted people elsewhere. I am even willing to grant that! We have nothing to boast about, dear young people. But, if the Lord chose us and He has chosen a path and marked it out for us, that is what we ought to do. Will you grant that?
If you young people who are at the Lord's Table do not know why you are there, you should get before the Lord and find out. You will not stand in any day of trouble if you do not know! It is not always easy sailing. The devil comes in and raises up a storm and a turmoil, and those who do not know why they are there soon drift. Are you gathered to people? I know a man who came to a Meeting in Southern California one day, and he was so taken that he wrote a letter and said, "I want to be among you people. I have been noticing your order and your godliness, and I want to be with you." (He should have had the answer an older brother gave to a woman in St. Louis long ago. She came to him with such an argument as that, and he said, "Are you not afraid you will spoil us?") He did not last long; he did not linger long. If you are gathered to people, you will not last long either. Are you seeking the Lord's mind for your path? Do you know it? These are facts; these are not theories.
Verse 18: "But thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant and thy maidservant." Young people, do you know why your parents want you to come with them to all the meetings? It is a command from God-to bring up their whole household in that manner. Do you try to get out of it? Is it irksome to you? Do you want to be able to tell the people at work or at school that you come to some fancy place, that has a big name and a big steeple? Oh, there is no reproach with that; but there is reproach in being gathered to the Lord's Name. "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. " If He loved you, chose you and set His heart upon you, are you ashamed of a little reproach for Him?
Turn now to chapter 17, verse 8: "If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates; then thou shalt arise and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose." It does not say, "Get you down to the courthouse-Get a good lawyer and put up a fight." "Thou shalt... get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose. And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall show thee the sentence of judgment: and thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall show thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee."-Provided you think it is right! But that is not there. Rather, it says, "According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor to the left. And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously." Is that plain language? This is written for our learning.
Now we do not have a center in Jerusalem, where all matters can be adjudicated. But there is a place, "which the LORD thy God shall choose." What place is that? "Where two or three are gathered together unto My Name, there am I in the midst of them." Is that why you are breaking bread? Is that why you gather as you do?
I knew a man-he was a dear man, and a dear Christian. I knew him also as a dear servant of the Lord. He used to minister beautifully on this. But there came a day when a certain case came up where his own personality became involved. A case came up where he undertook to judge, instead of those of "that place." He built a party to defend the man that they had put away at that place. He is gone now; the Lord took him home. We lost a valuable brother, and an able minister of the Word. But that man lost his reward. He could minister the word most acceptably; I would not put myself in the same category with him. But, when he was put to the test, he had never made it his own. You say, "Well, suppose they make a mistake?" All right, suppose. Amos 1 the one to set myself up in judgment against them? Far be the thought! Brethren, the rules are plain, and they are clear.
There was a certain man, a clever manipulator, who got in among the gathered saints, and obtained a following. There was also a brother who discerned and opposed him. He told the saints he thought the man was an impostor. I do not say that he was wise in how he did it, or in that he did it. But, through the influence of those who were under his power, this brother was silenced. His brethren in that Meeting decided to silence him. He could not speak out in the Meeting. He came to the meetings Lord's Day after Lord's Day. He sat through the meetings and never took part. This he did week in, and week out. One Monday morning, one of the leading brothers came to his place of employment, and said to the brother under rebuke, "I came here to you in order to apologize. You were right, and we were wrong. That man has fleeced some people out of their money." The Lord cleared it up, and He cleared it up in a way to His own glory. Oh, are we willing to wait on the Lord? Are you willing to sit quietly month after month, if need be, and let the Lord work it out?
There was an account of a man, either in Australia or New Zealand, who was put away in a certain Assembly for evil doctrine. He went to the Meeting and sat back; sat in the back of the room. That went on month after month. I think it went on for years. Finally, a visiting brother came, and he said, "What is that brother sitting back there for?" So they told him. He said, "Brethren, you have made an awful mistake. That is the truth of God." They wanted to see the facts from Scripture. And, when they saw them, they went to him and wept. And that man, by submitting to that erroneous judgment forever so long, did them more good than if he had ministered every day while he was out. Brethren, these are facts; these are realities. The principles are simple if we would only be simple about it. I sometimes think that we have lost our bearings. This is not treated lightly either. "The man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken... shall die."
Pretty harsh treatment!
I have little more to say, and the time is up. But I would stress that we should obey the Word of God! There are principles in the Word of God to guide us. Do we want to go on according to Him, or do we want our own way? Remember, if you ever depart from the plain, simple instruction of the Word of God, you have departed. It may only be a little. It may only be a small divergence. But it has a way of widening out, and, before long, it is all given up. The dear brother of whom I spoke, who was such a gifted teacher among us, and who was lost to us, never intended it to go as it did. At least, I do not think he did. But, little by little, we get out on a limb and then we are too proud to crawl back. Pride takes over. Pride is an awful thing. "These six things doth the LORD hate, yea seven are an abomination unto Him..." A "proud look" heads the list. It does not even say pride; just a proud look. Oh, to be humble! To be simple! Many times have I heard our dear aged brother Potter, now with the Lord, say: "Keep principles before you-do not let the dust of all the arguments get into your eyes."