Remove Not The Ancient Landmark

Temple Baptist Church - 1-21-2024

Proverbs 22:28

Introduction: 

 

A.  We live in a rapidly changing world and the changes are not for the better.

 

1.  The World is changing. 

 

a)  We are seeing the anti-God movement as people become reprobate concerning the faith.

 

b)  There is a general forsaking of the local church; a general lack of concern for things that are eternal; a general turn away from the beliefs of our fathers. 

 

c)  People today think that they have to re-invent the wheel and that their fathers and mothers were wrong in almost everything that they taught.

 

2.  Churches are changing.  Falling away plus Laodicea.  Quantity over Quality. 

 

a)  They have become “numbers” oriented instead of maintaining the traditions of the fathers.  Their ploy is that the world is changing, and we must change with it. 

 

b)  Both young and old are forsaking traditional churches for the contemporary ones where they are entertained instead of being preached to.

 

Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

 

3.  Doctrine is changing.  Thus, we come to our text for the next few weeks.  I have often said: “We must have an Anchor in the shifting sands of human theology.”  We must have something that is right; something that is not moving; otherwise, we get “spiritual vertigo.”

 

Psalms 11:3  If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

 

B.  Before I dissect our text for this morning, I want you to turn to 2 Timothy, chapter 3.  The introduction to the context found here is simple:

 

1.  Verses 1-5 – The Spiritual Condition of the Last Days.

 

2.  Verses 6-9 – The Spiritual Confusion of the Last Days.

 

3.  Verses 10-17 – The Spiritual Constancy of the Last Days.

 

C.  How do we know what is right?  The key is found in Verse 14: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.” 

 

D.  Let us look at the words of our text as words in the Bible are important.  I will also take a closer look at that in the weeks to come.

 

E.  Our text verse says, “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” 

 

F.  LAND'MARK, n. [land and mark.]  1828 Webster's Dictionary: A mark to designate the boundary of land; any mark or fixed object; as a marked tree, a stone, a ditch, or a heap of stones, by which the limits of a farm, a town or other portion of territory may be known and preserved.

 

G.  The Bible has much to say concerning “landmarks.”

 

1.  These landmarks were given by God - Deuteronomy 19:14  Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.

 

2.  The Lord curses those who remove them - Deuteronomy 27:17  Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.

 

3.  These landmarks belong to others also - Proverbs 23:10  Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

 

4.  There is an ulterior motive for removing them - Job 24:2  Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.

 

H.  The longer we hold to the “Old Paths” or “Ancient Landmarks,” the farther away from this rapidly advancing, present evil world we get! 

 

1.  We become the spiritual “stick in the mud” or “narrow minded” fundamentalists!  Our theology becomes less and less acceptable in both the world and the religious community.

 

2.  The farther we get from the world (it is the world that is moving away from God, not us moving away from the world) the more of as oddity and threat we become.  We will become more maligned and persecuted for an unbending faith in both Christ and the Bible.

 

3.  The world will hate us because it hated Christ, but the danger is this:

 

a) If we move or remove the ancient landmarks, we will think about them less and be more apt to “get used to the dark” of sinfulness.

 

b)  If we move or remove the ancient landmarks, our children will never know them!  They will only know the pseudo-spirituality of the Antichrist and his one world religion of the end-time.

 

2 Timothy 3:12  Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

 

1.  The Command of the Landmark – “remove not”  If these landmarks get either moved or removed, it will be done by us, not the world.

 

2.  The Antiquity of the Landmark – “ancient”  “New” may be good in some things, but not in the spiritual realm.  We are to seek and walk in the “Old Paths” wherein is the good way.

 

3.  The Fixture of the Landmark – “landmark”  We need to make sure that these landmarks not only are left for our children but also that they do not “move!”

 

4.  The Setters of the Landmark – “fathers”  These landmarks come from our spiritual forefathers who loved God, loved God’s Word, loved God’s church, and loved God’s people!

 

5.  The Permanence of the Landmark – “set”  If these landmarks are right, and they are, then they need to be driven so deep in our hearts and lives that they can never be either moved or removed!

 

2 Timothy 1:13  Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.