Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 903
Delivered by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“Lead me in the way everlasting.”- Psalm 139:24.
WE must all of us have a “way.” We must be journeying, for this is not our resting place. We cannot abide in any one stay. “Forward” is the word of command. As the round earth never pauses but perpetually revolves. As the stars never halt in their course but traverse incessantly their ordained orbits. As the rivers evermore seek the sea—as the ocean waves unrestingly pursue each other—even so feel we the common motion and always must we move onward, onward through this life unto the next—onward forever and ever.
Since we must have a way, it is of the highest importance that our way should be a right one. Important, because if it is not right we shall not long be happy in our course since the happiness of those who follow the path of evil is fleeting as a meteor, mocking as a will-o’-the-wisp, deceptive as the mirage, frail as a bubble on the wave and unsubstantial as a phantom of the night. Today the path of sin leads us through flowery meads and groves resounding with song of birds, but tomorrow it will wind among the desolations of many generations where souls and all their joys are withered as the green herb in the summer sun. The ways of righteousness are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. The good is growing and the pleasure deepening where the wise in heart are walking, but nowhere else. We have need, then, to find the right way, that we may be happy pilgrims along it.
We have need of the right way, also, because whatever the way we pursue, others will be affected by it. Little ones who gather around our knees will think, “father’s way” must be the way for them. Servants, neighbors, brothers, sisters and if we are very young, playmates and school fellows under our influence—any or all of these will be affected for good or evil by our choices. Our following the wrong way will lead them to the wrong and we shall become a ministry of evil unto them if we choose evil unto ourselves. More important, still, is it that we should choose the right way because of the right end. “All’s well that ends well.” But what if the way is such that it must end amiss—must lead to the blackness of darkness forever—must land us “where their worm dies not and their fire is not quenched”? Oh, then it will be terrible to have been found in such a way! Terrible for our souls to meet such a doom!
May it be yours, my dear Hearers, to be led early in life through the gate of faith in Jesus which leads into the straight and narrow way of eternal life! May it be yours to be kept in that way, your faith confirmed by following in it. May it be yours to be found in that way when the summons shall come from the Master to render up your account. May it be yours to win, through Divine Grace, the sure results of perseverance in the way of holiness by reaching that blessed end that has no end—the joy of the blessed in the land of the hereafter at the right hand of the Most High!
We shall take the text as a prayer and point out to you three things in it which strike us as being somewhat remarkable. The first is a remarkable attribute of the right way—it is said to be “everlasting.” Secondly, a remarkable confession implied in the language here employed. And then, thirdly, the remarkably comprehensive prayer contained in the words before us.
I. First, then, A REMARKABLE ATTRIBUTE OF THE RIGHT WAY—IT IS “THE WAY EVERLASTING.” It is most certain that the way of many men cannot be everlasting. The way of the sinful is not so. I hope, with regard to some, that their way will last but for a very little time, for it is the way of evil. May they soon turn from it! “It is a long lane that has no turning.” May their road be so hedged up by God’s Providence and Grace that they may be compelled to take another road. May their prayer be unto God, “turn me and I shall be turned.” The way of the sinner ought not to be a way everlasting, for if it should be, it must be a way of everlasting sorrow. The sinner’s way of pleasure is far from being everlasting, for even here the wine cup of sin first yields the sweetness of intoxication, but afterwards it becomes insipid with satiety. And after that it grows bitter with remorse, and as for the dregs, what a Hell burns within them!
The way of pleasure in sin is but as the way of foam on the breaker, soon to disappear. The devil would gladly persuade men that their life shall always be as it is, that they shall dance on forever—forever as the merry butterflies that need not toil and that flit away the golden hours. He would have them forget the killing frosts that will blight forever each idle wing. Death and the Justice of God have decreed that the way of pleasure and the life of sin shall not be everlasting. An end must surely come to the houses of cards built on carnal merriment—their bowing walls must lie level with the dust—their tottering fences must fall down to the ground.