The Old Way of the Wicked

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"Have you marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? They were carried off before their time, their foundations washed away by a flood. They said to God: Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do to us?" Job 22:15-17

"Have you marked the old way?" Antiquity is no guarantee for truth. It was the old way, but it was the wrong way. If our religion is to be settled by antiquity, we shall presently pass back to the worst form of idolatry, for we must needs become Druids. It is not always that "the old is better." Sometimes, by reason of the depravity of human nature, the old is the more corrupt. The oldest of all would be the best, but how shall we come at it? Adam was once perfection - but how shall we regain that state? Old, exceeding old, is the path of sin and the path of error, for as old as the father of lies is sin. Antiquity is, moreover, no excuse for sin. It may be that men have long transgressed, but use in rebellion will not mitigate the treason before the eternal throne. If you know better, it will not stand you in any stead that God winked at the ignorance of others in former ages. If you have had more light than they, you shall have severer judgment

than they; therefore do not plead the antiquity of any evil custom as an excuse for sin. It was an old way, but they who ran in it perished in it just as surely as if it had been a new way of sinning entirely of their own invention: antiquity will be no consolation to those who perish by following evil precedents. It will serve no purpose to lost souls, that they sinned as thousands sinned before them; and if they shall meet long generations of their ancestors, lost in the same overthrow, they shall by no means be comforted by such grim companionship. Hence, it becomes all of us to examine whether those religious dogmas which we have accepted on account of their apparent venerableness of age and universality of custom, are indeed the truth. We are not among those who believe that the traditions of the fathers are the ultimate tests of truth. We have heard the voice which says, "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

We would not affect novelty for its own sake - that would be folly; neither will we adore and venerate antiquity for its own sake, for that would lead us into idolatry, and superstition. Is the thing right? Then follow it, though you have discovered it but yesterday; is it wrong? Then, though the road were trodden by sinners since the first ages, yet do not you pursue it unless you desire to meet with the same end as they. Search and look to yourcreeds, your worship and your customs, for this world has long enough been deluded by hoary superstitions. Search, my hearer, search and look: right carefully within your heart, for you may be deceived, and it were a pity it should be so with you, while there are such opportunities given you to discover and rectify your mistakes. We shall now, this morning, in the words of the text, mark the old way of wicked men, observe it carefully, and consider it well. There shall be three points this morning, the way, the end, the warning.

I. The first shall be THE WAY - "the old way which wicked men have trodden." First, what it was. There is no doubt that Eliphaz is here alluding to those who sinned before the flood. He is looking to what were ancient days to him. Living as he did, in what is olden time to us, his days of yore were the days before the flood, and the old way he speaks of is the way and course of sinners before the world was destroyed by water.

Now this way, in the first place, was a way of rebellion against God. Adam, our first parent, knew God's will; that will should not to have been irksome to him. The command was a very easy one; the denial of the one tree to him should have been no great loss. He ought to have been well content when all the rest of the garden was his own leasehold, to have let that one tree belong to the Great Freeholder of all; but he set his will in direct antagonism to the will of the Most High. The sin itself looked small, the act of plucking the forbidden fruit appeared to be trivial, but within the loins of it lurked a dark hostility to the mind of God, which led to open breach of the Lord's command. That is the way in every transgressor's case, forevery sinner is a rebel against God. Though the man at the time when he commits the sin may claim that he was not thinking of God, yet the fact of his acting without regard to God whom he ought always reverently to consider, was in itself a sin. Sin is a defiance of divine authority, it throws down the gauntlet, and challenges the rights of the King of kings.

Are there any here this morning who are pursuing that old way which wicked men have trodden. Do not many of you neglect as a rule the consideration of what is God's mind? Do you not act as unrestrainedly as if there were no God at all? Do you not constantly follow after that which the Lord abhors? I fear many of you are traversing the way of rebellion and are daily provoking the Great Judge. I beg you beware, for this is the old way which wicked men have trodden, and you may be sure that as God met with them, and their rebellion soon ended in terrible destruction, so will he also meet with you, for God's ways are equal, and he deals out justice to sinners now as he did then.

In the next place, the old way was a way of selfishness. Why did Eve take of that fruit? It was because she believed that the taking of it would delight her appetite, and would also make her wise. It was to gain something for self that evil was done; and her children also have participated in the same feeling. It was this that made Nimrod the mighty tyrant of the world; it was this which led the sons of God before the flood to look upon the daughters of men, for they were fair, because they sought their own pleasure and not the service of God. Self reigned. The men cast themselves down before their own natural propensities, indulged their wantonness, and had no delight in God. This is the old way which wicked men have trodden, and I fear it is a well-trodden path today. How do the mass of mankind cry? "Show us any good; show us something that shall give us pleasure, amusement, sport, we care little what it is. Let it be decent and respectable, if so it may be, but by any means let us amuse ourselves and find pleasure, or get gain, or heap to ourselves honor;" for man seeks himself still, and this is the root of man's sin. He cannot believe that if he would find himself he must not seek himself. He cannot believe the Savior's testimony that he that would save his life must be content to lose it; that in looking to God and denying self we follow the highest and surest road to promote our own happiness.

No, the sinner resolves to serve self first, and then perhaps, he will condescend even to follow God himself out of self-love, and be religious, and devout, and worship God after his fashion, in order to save himself, still seeking self even at the foot of the throne of God. Well, dear friend, if you, this morning, have not been taught that you must live unto God and not to self, if you are still following out your own ends and aims, and if the main object of your life is to acquire wealth or to get position, or to live in comfort, or to indulge your passions - then depend upon it you are treading in the old way which wicked men have trodden; and as it has always ended in disappointment, so will it with you. The apple stolen out of God's garden has turned to ashes in the hand; the Abimelech of self has become a tyrant; fire has come forth from the bramble which men have made a king, and their cedars have been burned. Be wise, I beg you, and forsake the road which leads to misery.

The old way, in the third place, was a way of pride. Our mother Eve rebelled against God because she thought she knew better than God did. She would be as a god, that was her ambition, and the same thought had entered into her husband's mind: he was not content to be what his Maker would have him, he would if he could, leap into the very throne of Deity, and put upon his own head the diadem of universal dominion. An ambitious pride led them both astray, and this, I fear, is the road in which many are constantly treading. Content to be as nothing before God? No, that they will not; they boast that they are something, and they lift up their heads, and claim dignity, and ask for respect. Lie at the feet of Jesus Christ, and receive salvation as a gift of mercy, pure mercy? No, that they will not; they talk of merits, prayers, tears. They will, if they can, find something of their own in which to trust, they wrap their miserable rags about them, and claim that they are well clad, and being fascinated by self-deceit, theyimagine that they are rich and increased in goods when they are naked, and poor, and miserable. This old way which wicked men have trodden is still frequented by the mass of those who hear the gospel, but who reject it, to their own confusion.

O you who are pilgrims in it, remember Pharaoh, and how the Lord crushed the pride of that haughty monarch! Remember he has always cut down thelofty trees and leveled towering hills, and it is his sworn purpose to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the excellency of earth. Tarry awhile, O pilgrim of pride, and humble yourself in dust and ashes, that you may be exalted by the hand of God.

Hoping that each one before me is undergoing the process of self examination, I would further remark that the old way which wicked men have trodden is a way of self-righteousness. Cain, especially, trod that road. He was not an outwardly irreligious man, but quite the reverse. Inasmuch as a sacrifice must be brought, he will bring an offering on his own account. If Abel kneels by the altar, Cain will kneel by the altar also. It was respectable and reputable in that age to pay deference to the unseen God, Cain therefore does the same; but mark where the flaw was in his religion! Abel brought a bloody sacrifice, a lamb, indicating his faith in the great atoning sacrifice, which was to be offered in the end of the world in the person of the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus; but Cain presented an unbloody offering of the fruits of the earth, the products of his own toil, and he thought himself as good as Abel, perhaps better. When the Lord did not accept his service, the envious heart of the self-righteous man boiled over with indignation, and he became a persecutor, ay, a murderer.

None are so bitter as the self-righteous; none so cruelly persecute the righteous as those who think themselves righteous and are not. It was because Saul of Tarsus boasted in a fancied righteousness of his own that he breathed out threatenings against those who found their righteousness alone in Christ. The old way of self-righteousness, then, was trodden by the feet of the first murderer, and it is trodden still by tens of thousands of men. Ah, your church-goings and your chapel-goings, your goings to the sacrament, your baptism, your confirmation, your ceremonies of all sorts and kinds, your gifts to the poor, your contributions to charities, your amiable speeches, and your repetitions of your liturgies, or of your extemporaneous prayers; these, put together, are rested on as the rock of your salvation.

Beware, I entreat you, for this is the old way of the Pharisee when he thanked God that he was not as other men; it is the old way of universal human nature which evermore goes about to establish its own righteousness, and will not submit itself to the righteousness of Christ. As surely as the Pharisees were condemned as a generation of vipers, and could not escape the damnation of hell, so surely every one of us, if we set up our righteousness in the place of Christ's righteousness, will meet with condemnation, and will be overthrown by God's sudden wrath. Mark that old way, and I beseech you, men and brethren, flee from it; by God's grace, flee from it now.

The old way which wicked men have trodden was, in the next place, a way of unbelief. Noah was sent to tell those ancient sinners that the world would be destroyed by a flood. They thought him an old dotard, and mocked him to scorn. For one hundred and twenty years that "preacher of righteousness" continually lifted up his warning voice. He threatened that the world should certainly be deluged, and the ungodly sons of men should surely be swept away. He pointed to the ark of safety which he was building in testimony against them, and besought them to humble themselves, and break off their sins by righteousness, but they would not believe the prophet, preacher of righteousness though he was; they turned his most earnest words into jests, and his tenderest invitations were made the subject of their scorn. This was the old way, and the old way has not lost its pilgrims; in different forms and different ways, the atheism of the human heart still continues to discover itself, ay, and discover itself in Christian congregations, for you that are unconverted, surely do not believe that you will be condemned by the righteous justice of God, or you would not be so much at ease. If you solemnly believed in the justice of God, you would not dare to bring it down upon your heads; if you really and in very truth believed in the great assize and in the Judge of all, you would not surely spend your lives in violation of the law and in bringing upon yourself the penalty.

Oh, if you believe that there is a hell for such as die outside of Christ, you would be afraid to remain out of Christ another day, you would seek your chambers, fall upon your knees, and cry to God in mercy that he would now accept you and let you now be reconciled to him through his blood. Alas! you hear of God's anger, and you profess to believe in it, but you act like infidels, and as you act, so you are. This old way of disbelief has always ended in confusion, for the flood did come, and their disbelief could not arrest its rising; the angry waters burst out from their lairs like beasts of prey, hungry for human life, and the rebellious race was utterly destroyed; even thus most surely shall the vengeance of God overtake us, whether we believe it or not, unless we fly to Christ the Ark and are housed in him from the coming tempest.

I will not detain you much longer over this very terrible story, but the old way which wicked men have trodden is a way of worldliness and carelessness, and procrastination. What did those men before the flood do? They married and were given in marriage until the flood came and swept them all away. If any of them believed in Noah, they at any rate said, "We will wait a little longer, there will be time for us to escape from the threatened flood when the first appearance of the descending rains and the upheaving fountains shall be visible to us." The whole world seems to have been making festival on that black day that closed the years of mercy. Never did the joy-bells ring more sweetly; never was the marriage dance more merry, never did eyes more sweetly look love to eyes that spoke again, than when the first boomings of the terrible battle were heard afar off, and Jehovah came forth to vengeance, dressed like a man of war, resolved to ease him of his adversaries. In this old way of worldliness, are there not some of you, dear hearers, treading this very morning? Perhaps you are professors of religion, and yet treading in this way. I mentioned the sons of God just now who are said by Moses to have looked upon the daughters of men, and formed alliance with them, peradventure you may be contemplating the same act, and when the flood comes, your profession will be no refuge to you, but you shall be swept away with the rest.

Alas! this is the world's great catechism, "What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and how shall we be clothed?" And this is the world's trinity in unity, "The lust of the eye, and the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life!" And this is the course of this world, ever does it seek after its own gain and its own pleasure, saying to more solemn and serious things, "When I have a more convenient season I will send for you." Though the King of heaven has spread a banquet, yet men make light of it; though he has killed his oxen and his fatlings, they go their way every man to his farm and to his merchandise, and so will they do until "God's right arm is bared for war, And thunder clothes his cloudy car." Where shall the ungodly fly in that tremendous day? they have chosen this old way, and have walked therein, but how will they escape him when his flood shall sweep them away?

Eliphaz says, "Have you marked the way?" I want you to stop a little while, and look at that road again, and mark it anew. The first thing I observe as I look into it is, that it is a very broad way. Our Savior's words are most true, "Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat." The road of sin is so wide that it has room for rebels, for selfish sinners, for proud sinners, for professors of religion, for infidels, for the worldly, and for the hypocrite. Those who tread the narrow way must all go in at one gate, they must all partake of one washing in the Savior's blood, they must all be renewed by one Holy Spirit, they must walk in one command; but as for the ungodly, they may follow"Each a different way Though all in the downward road."

The road is so wide, that there may be many independent tracks in it, and the drunkard may find his way along it without ever ruffling the complacency of the hypocrite; the mere moralist may pick a clean path all the way; while the immoral wretch may wade up to his knees in mire throughout the whole road. Behold how sinners disagree and yet agree! how the Sadducee and the Pharisee are opposed to each other in most respects, and yet agree in this, that they are opposed to God! It is a broad road.

Observe that it is a very popular road. The way downward to destruction is a very fashionable one, and it always will be. To follow God and to be right has always been a thing espoused by the minority. Holy Richard Baxter says that, when a child, he marveled that if he ever met with a man who was much more holy than other men, spoke more of Christ, was more prayerful, was more scrupulous in business, he was always the man of whom the neighbors spoke worst; and he wondered more, as he read history, that the children of God always were the nicknamed ones, the persecutedones, the despised ones, until he began to understand that text of Scripture, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed." It must be so; the people of God must expect to go against the stream, as the living fish always do; they must stem the torrent of customand of fashion, but if you want to follow the old way which wicked men have trodden, you will find plenty of companions, and everyone will give you good cheer.

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