Five Young Men
Gordon Henry Hayhoe
Table of Contents
Hymn 224 "O That We Never Might Forget … "
I would like to look at five different passages in the Scriptures where we have young men brought before us in connection with various things of life. The first one is in Ecclesiastes 2:1. “I said in mine heart, Go to now, 1 will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.” Verse 9; “So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labor: and this was my portion of all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that 1 had labored to do: and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.”
Evidently, Solomon was a young man when he came to the throne. We know that David, his father, reigned for forty years and Solomon was not born until some time after his father was reigning. So I would say that he was probably in his late twenties or early thirties at the very best. And he has come to the throne in Jerusalem. He has the opportunity to discover for himself everything that will bring happiness to a man if it’s to be found under the sun. Some of us might say, “I’d like to try this or try that but I don’t have the position nor the money to try it. I don’t have the influence so I’m restricted.” But, here was a man who was not restricted. Here was a man who had power because he was king in Jerusalem. Here was a man who had wisdom, because it says that he was wise above all that were before him. Here was a man who had money, for he made silver and gold as the sands of the street. He had everything that was necessary, if it were possible, for a man to find happiness under the sun. He didn’t intend to go to the extreme in anything. He just intended to see what could be found out to bring happiness, without, as he thought, going to the extreme and making himself foolish. Dear young people, perhaps this is the quest that’s in your mind too. You feel, “Well, I’d just like to try things out. This is a wonderful world and we’re living in a wonderful age.” There’s more within the reach of young people than there ever was before, more things, more places to go, much more learning. There is so much that you could reach out for and this age in which you live is a very particularly tempting age. You can sit in your own home and see what’s going on all over the world. This is something that couldn’t be done in times past. And you say, “Why not enjoy all these things and enjoy them to the full?” Why did God allow Solomon to be in this position? For the very reason for which I am speaking this afternoon. That is, He allowed this man to try everything so that he might, as it were, give us the results of his research, of his findings. And he tried what could be found under the sun. When he tried it all, what was his observation? What was his finding? Well, his finding was as we’re told in the 11th verse, “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on all the labor that I had labored to do: and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit.” It didn’t bring him the satisfaction that he had expected. Dear young people, as I look into your faces I know that you are seeking after something that will satisfy. Youth is always after something worthwhile in life, always seeking. This is only normal, because when you are young, you look out on life and you think there must be something worthwhile and you feel that you must try each thing in order to find out whether it is worthwhile. But this is the wonder of God’s word. We have One who knows infinitely more than we do. We have One who is perfect in wisdom. His name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6) There is One who looks down in this room this afternoon and is interested in you and who knows all about what is in your mind and knows that you are really seeking for something that satisfies. He hasn’t left you without the very finest and best of advice. He hasn’t left you to the wisdom of men because the wisdom of men is very varied. Some people commend one thing, some another. Some people uphold one thing, another condemns that same thing. What are you going to do? You say, “Even when I ask Christians, some people say this is alright and some Christians say it’s not.” Dear young people, I turn you to the Word of God. God has written a book for us. It’s His word. It’s His wisdom, it’s His light for our pathway. “The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple.” (Psa. 119:130) To you dear young people, I would say; to be brought up under the sound of God’s word is the greatest privilege that you can have. If you were bright and your teacher was the best teacher in the whole school, you would say, “Well, I must say, I have a great favor, I have the best teacher in the school.” If you were going to college and you were studying a subject under the very best professor in the land you would say, “I’m really favored. I’m studying under such and such a professor and he’s the high man in his field.” Well, dear friend, you’re studying under the One who is not just the high man, but He’s God Himself. That blessed One who came down into this world and walked through this world was God manifest in the flesh and you and I have the light and wisdom of His word. I cannot commend too highly to you the importance of reading God’s word until you become well acquainted with it. I’ve sometimes said to young people, “Read the stories of the Bible carefully. Read them so that they sink right in and so you know what God has given, because God has written a story in His word to suit every situation that you could ever meet in life. He’s not merely given you instructions, but He has put men in the history of this world in every position in which a person could be found and, in that position, he has shown how they acted. He has shown us their mistakes. He has shown us what they’ve had to reap for their mistakes. He’s also shown us how they were blessed when they bowed to the word of God and to His wisdom and walked in obedience to Him. “Oh,” you say, “my situation is different from others.” No, I say, there’s a story in the Bible that’s suited to you. There’s a story in the Bible that’s suited for your office, for your home, for the assembly where you live. Every situation you could think of is portrayed in the scripture. In the Old Testament we have the picture, and in the New Testament we have the instruction. Did you ever buy a part for your car and then you found that there was a little diagram that showed how to put it on and there was some printed instruction too. You looked at the diagram and you looked at the printed instruction and you worked together with those two and you put the thing on properly. Well dear friend, God’s given you a picture and He’s given you the instruction. He’s written it all down. How thankful we should be. If there’s someone here who is on the exact same quest as Solomon, who is almost saying the very words that he said to his own heart; “I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure.” “Oh,” you say, “That’s just what I wanted I didn’t know the Bible told me to do that.” Here was a young man and he talked to himself and he said, “Now I’m just going to have a good time and I’m going to try everything that I can and I’m not going to go foolish in it, But, I am just going to try it.” Of course, we have to remember it was “under the sun”. Don’t forget those words. You’ll never understand the book of Ecclesiastes unless you always bear in mind those words, “under the sun”. He didn’t bring in the glorious knowledge that you and I have in Christianity, but he looked at things under the sun and just acted as a man might try things under the sun. So these things under the sun did not bring satisfaction to his heart. When he had tried them all, he said, “All is vanity.” Now this doesn’t mean that God isn’t interested in your happiness. Nor does it mean that He’s not interested in your material happiness. I was very much struck in reading the 12Th chapter of Luke where it says that God clothed the lilies far better than Solomon was clothed in all his glory. (Luke 12:27) If God was so interested in the flower of the field, He’s interested in us. The Lord Jesus goes on to say, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”(Matt. 6:33, Luke 12:31) That is, don’t seek pleasure and self-satisfaction. Seek the Lord. Seek Him. Then He’ll undertake in what you need in a natural way. He is interested in the places you go. He’s interested in the clothes that you wear. He’s interested in the house you live in and the car that you drive. He’s interested in everything but He doesn’t want you to make this the object of your life. He doesn’t want you to make that the thing that you seek after. I’ve sometimes illustrated it like this. If the United States was going to send an ambassador to Canada and when he was going to be sent, he said, “I’m most interested in what kind of car I’m going to have, what kind of house I’m going to have, and whether I’m going to have a good time in Canada.” They would probably say, “You are not a suited representative for us.” But when he goes there, he’s provided with a nice house, he’s provided with a nice car. But that’s not his purpose. That’s not what he’s there for. That is merely provided in connection with the carrying out of his privilege of representing the United States in Canada. Dear friends, you and I are heavenly men. Every saved young person in this room this afternoon belongs to heaven and is a representative of heaven upon earth. Do you think God cares whether you are provided for? I’m quite sure the United States cares very much whether their ambassador is provided for. In fact, it’s their interest to see that he’s properly provided for, but that isn’t why he’s in Canada. You are not in the world and I am not in this world to seek pleasure. We are here to represent Christ. If pleasure is what you are seeking after dear young person, it’s going to lead to disappointment. If you have made the quest of your search pleasure and fun and mirth and laughter as he speaks of, and perhaps great works and all these things, you’re bound for disappointment. But, if you make Christ the object of your search, then He cares about the rest. He cares about everything in your life. I love that verse (1 Peter 5:7) “Casting all your care upon Him.” It doesn’t end by saying “because He is so mighty.” It could end that way but why does it say, “Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you”? Because He’s interested in you. You can safely leave it to Him. As the song says, “The protection of His child and treasure is a charge that on Himself He laid.” He made that His own charge. It’s His interest. Here was one who sought the wrong thing and when he had it all, he had to admit it was vanity and vexation of spirit. I beseech you, dear young people, don’t seek after the things here, not because God is not interested in your happiness, but because “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” (Psa. 34:10) Here we find one in quest of pleasure only to be disappointed.
Now I would like you to turn to Mark 14:50. “And they all forsook Him and fled. And there followed Him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.” Well, here is another young man. He certainly wasn’t seeking after pleasure. He certainly wasn’t on the same quest as the man that we read about in the book of Ecclesiastes. Here was a young man that you would say was a young man of character. I brought this young man before you for a particular purpose. We find in the 50th verse that all the disciples had forsaken Jesus and fled. That is, the ones who had companied with the Lord Jesus and who ought to have been very devoted to Him, turned out to be a disappointment. They didn’t follow the Lord like they should have, because at this point, at this very serious point in the test, they all forsook Him and fled. This young man, with the natural zeal of youth, decides that he is going to, shall I say, be a hero. He is going to stand out above all the rest. Dear young people, there can be a danger of this too. Sometimes when we are young, we look around and we see others that haven’t gone on with the Lord the way they should. And we tend, perhaps, to set up ourselves and think we’re not going to make the same mistakes that they made. We’re going to go on. We’re going to do this, and we show something of the spirit that Peter said, “Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.” (Mark 14:29, Matt. 26:33) Sometimes we see young people like this. It’s lovely to see a desire for the Lord, but sometimes we display this spirit without realizing what we are ourselves, without ever getting into the presence of God in a sense of our own nothingness. We have to find out that we do not have the strength for the Christian life in ourselves. I have seen many young people start out well, look like promising young people, and today they have turned out to be a disappointment. And I’ve heard older ones say, “Well, I don’t understand, that young person seemed so promising.” Here is a young man who stands out. (I might say that linen in the Scripture, is a figure of practical righteousness.) He was going to be a little better than the rest. He was going to be one, who, even if all the others didn’t do the right thing, he was going to be the hero. He was going to be the faithful one. Oh, we don’t know our own hearts. How many, many times, my dear father quoted to me that verse, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” (Prov. 28:26) We don’t know what we would do. We are capable of doing anything. Dear young people, don’t trust your own heart. You may think, “I wouldn’t do this. Some other person might be turned aside, but not me. I’m going to be faithful.” We don’t know our own hearts. This young man had the linen cloth cast about his naked body. I think of it sometimes. He had this outwardly, but what did he have underneath it? Nothing. There was nothing underneath. We can have something that’s outward but God is going to put us to the test about what we have underneath.
Underneath that display, underneath that nice talk, underneath that pretended desire to follow the Lord, is there reality? The priest was to have linen breeches about his loins. He was to have something underneath the robes. Dear young people, it isn’t enough just to put on the outward. There needs to be something underneath. That is, there needs to be that self-judgment in the presence of the Lord, that consciousness that we have no strength of our own. We need to get into His presence in quietness and acknowledge that we do not have the strength to meet the difficulties of life. I would encourage you, dear young people, to get before the Lord. Don’t try to be outwardly what you are not inwardly. God wants reality. “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7) If the Nazarite broke his inward devotedness to God he wasn’t even allowed to retain his long hair. Why? Because God didn’t want him to maintain the outward when he didn’t possess the inward. If he was touching what was unclean, if he was taking of the fruit of the vine, that is, enjoying the pleasures of the world, then he wasn’t to bear the outward sign of being something that he wasn’t inwardly. God said that he was to cut off his hair and not make a display before others of something that was not real in his life. I say, dear young people, be real. Walk before God. Walk in self-judgment. The two great lessons of the wilderness are this, that there’s nothing good in us, but that there is everything we need in Christ. Yes, but we are slow to learn both. We are so slow to learn that there is nothing good in us. Think of Moses, one who God afterward used so mightily, but, early in his life, we find him going in an energy of self. He was going to set things right. When his brethren had a quarrel he said, “Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?” (Ex. 2:13) He killed the Egyptian for smiting one of his brethren. He meant well, but he had not learned himself. How long did it take before God could use him? Forty years. Forty years in the back side of the desert, and when he came back he wasn’t a self-confident man. No. When he came out of Pharaoh’s court he was mighty in word and deed, but when he came back from the school of God, he said, “I can’t talk.” The Lord had to say, “Who hath made man’s mouth?” (Ex. 4:11) “I’ll teach you what to say, Moses.” Yes, dear young people, this is another experience that we sometimes have to go through. If I can make it very simple, God doesn’t want you to pretend to be something. He wants reality. He wants you not to just put something on in front of your brethren. What gives joy to the heart of your blessed Savior is when He sees you alone in your bedroom, on your knees, reading His word, preparing the inward so that when you go to meet others that the outward would be the expression of what was inward. Now, when the young men laid hold on this boy who had this linen garment, it says it was “cast about his naked body.” When someone went to grab him, he lost the linen cloth and he fled. He had nothing underneath. There is going to come a test in your life. There is a test going to come in mine. What is that test going to be? Whether what we pretend to be outwardly is real with us inwardly. Somebody is going to lay hold on us. Some unexpected attack is going to come. Someone is going to rise up and say or do something and it is going to catch us off guard. And if we have nothing inward, when the outward is gone, we will flee. We’ll run, because it hasn’t been the habit of our lives to be constantly in the Lord’s presence. Well, this young man that we read of here was somewhat different from the first one. The first one was openly seeking mirth and pleasure. The second one was displaying the outward linen garment but he wasn’t carrying it out practically in his own personal life before the Lord. So, I believe there is a lesson for us in this. I say again, God wants reality.
Now let’s turn to another in Exodus 33:7. “And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.” verse 10 “And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again unto the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.” We haven’t time to read all of this passage but we have another young man named Joshua. This man had, along with many others, left Egypt. God had redeemed them and brought them out of that land of bondage. They were now in the wilderness. But, although they had left Egypt, the world was, alas, in their hearts. We find just the chapter before, they had made a golden calf and those in the camp were worshipping the golden calf. They were worshipping the works of their own hands. Alas, we can say that those who profess the name of Christ today have departed from loyalty to Him. Other things have come in. Just as here they worshipped the golden calf, so there can be other things that are idols. When Moses came down from the mount and found the people worshipping the golden calf, it says he took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp afar off and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. That is, God provided a meeting place outside of all this confusion. I believe it is still the same today. “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” (Heb. 13:13) There was a place. Isn’t this a marvelous name, “The Tabernacle of the congregation”? Were there a great crowd of people there? It says, “Everyone that sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation which was without the camp.” You might say, “Well, you would expect to find a large crowd there then, if everyone that sought the Lord went out there.” But, no, it appears that it was not so. It appears that there were very few. The greater part of them chose a more popular position. They didn’t want to turn their back upon the Lord, so it says, “All the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.” He worshipped but he didn’t go to this meeting place. We know that there are many who we could say are true children of God yet they have not seen their place outside the camp. They have not seen what it is to be gathered to a rejected Christ. Many of you dear young people have been brought up to know these things and to hear them. It is not a new thing for you to be told what it is to be gathered to a rejected Christ. We are not expecting to find a popular position, but I trust that those who have gone through any exercise can say, “The reason I have identified myself with those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus is because I believe that the Lord is there and that is why I want to be there.” That is the only thing that will ever keep us there. It’s certainly not because of the crowd. Here we find that the names of those that went out are not mentioned. If there were very many here, there were exceedingly few in comparison to the number that were in the camp. The greater majority stood in their tent door and worshipped the Lord. But, there was a place. There was a place where the tabernacle was set. There was a place where those that sought the Lord could go and commune with Him. I just make this little remark because someone might say, “Well, then why did Moses go into the camp?” God is sovereign and the fact that God is working in the camp and saving souls is not a reason for us to forsake the path of obedience. One rejoices to see God working in grace and we, just like Israel, have failed exceedingly. We can not lift up our heads and say, “We are the faithful people and all the gospel testimony has been connected to us.” Indeed not, brethren. Let us hang our heads and acknowledge that we are just poor failing things and a failing testimony to the truth of the Church as the body of Christ. God is faithful and I give thanks for those who have been brought to the Lord even though they might not have given up the confusion of Christendom. We leave that with the Lord. It is not our responsibility to interfere or to question the sovereignty of God. God has a right. Moses, who in this case represents Christ, went into the camp. Thank God He is still meeting people in grace, meeting them, perhaps in a position that His word can not approve of, because He is sovereign. But as far as Joshua was concerned, his place was one of obedience. His place was one of following those who sought the Lord, being in the Lord’s presence. Later on, Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp and Joshua said, “My Lord, Moses forbid them.” Did Moses forbid them? He said, “Enviest thou for my sake?” (Num. 11:29) Dear young people, never get envious because there is blessing outside of us. Never get envious because there is blessing in the camp. Give thanks that there is blessing in the camp. But your path and mine is to be obedient to the word of God. What I wanted to bring before you about this young man named Joshua was, that to him, the tabernacle of the congregation was precious. The place where the Lord met with His people was precious to him. He didn’t interfere with what God was doing in grace, but he just walked in the path of obedience himself. This is the happy path for you, dear young people. I know that in these days it is often hard to continue in the path. But notice, “And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation.” When you find that there are not many there are you going to give up? Are you going to give up? Because you see God working in the camp, are you going to give up the path because of that? Joshua did not. Joshua stayed in the place where the tabernacle was, because that was the place for those that sought the Lord. So it says, “He departed not out of the tabernacle.” May the Lord give us to value the privilege of walking in obedience to His word, even though God is sovereign in His actings in grace.
Now, shall we turn to Zechariah, the second to last book in the Old Testament.
Zechariah 2:1 “I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof. And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her” In Zechariah we have the little remnant that had come back from the Babylonian captivity. They were back in the center where God had put His name and yet there was much that would discourage them. There was very little activity in connection with the rebuilding of the temple. They were so discouraged that some of them were at the point of almost giving up. They were building their own houses but the house of the Lord was being neglected. God raised up two prophets, Zechariah and Haggai, to stir up the people and to encourage them to go on. This brings us to this young man with the measuring line in his hand. I’m sure that he looked around and saw some building their houses. He saw some who ought to have been faithful men but they were getting into mix-ups with the enemies that were round about them. There were so many things to discourage. Here was a young man, and what does he do? He says, “I’m just going to take a line and see how large this work really is.” He is walking along with a measuring line. Have you ever done that, dear young person? Have you ever taken a measuring line and measured the little assembly where you were and then you compared it with others and you said, “Oh, it’s nothing. There is nothing being done here. It’s so small and there is so much weakness.” You were just about at the same point as this young man. I’m sure that if he had measured Jerusalem at this point, he would have gone away with a discouraged heart and said, “It’s so small. Does the Lord really have delight in such a thing as this?” So we find that an angel is sent to run and speak to this young man. What was the word given to him? He is told to look on. As though the message was like this, “Oh young man, don’t measure things down here as they are. But just think of the glorious time that is ahead. Jerusalem is going to be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein.” If I could apply it to our own day, when you return to the little assembly that you came from, you take the measuring line in your hand, and you say, “It was nice to be with a few hundred when we were at those meetings up in Glendale. But, there are so few here and there are no young people.” And with the measuring line in your hand you are pretty discouraged. Well, here’s somebody running to speak to you. What is he telling you? “Look on, there’s a glorious day ahead.” You say, “Yes, but down here.” Well, dear young people, to be gathered on the ground of the one body as we have had in this meeting, to be gathered as members of the body of Christ is indeed a wonderful privilege. I believe the dearest thing to the heart of Christ in this present dispensation is that He is gathering out a bride for glory. He looks down and sees so many calling themselves by various names, forming groups with various levels of activity and measuring. “We are doing a big work here and we are doing something here.” We perhaps think our assembly is so small, but the Lord looks down and He finds delight in a few that recognize that there is one body and that in all weakness we can seek to give expression to that truth. If I can speak for myself, it’s the knowledge of this that has kept me in some measure through the years. I’m just the same as you are. I’ve looked around and I’ve often been discouraged as I’ve gone to places and seen the weakness. I have had to be careful not to pull out the measuring line. I’ve had to put it aside, as it were, and I have had to look on and say, “The church is someday going to be presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” To be gathered just to give expression to the truth that there is one body, just to know that we are gathered as members of his body waiting for that glorious time, then, that gives courage to go on. So it says, “I, saith the Lord, will be unto her as a wall of fire round about” (that is, all evil will be kept out) “and a glory in the midst of her.” Isn’t a wondrous future ahead? If there is a young person here and you have just come to the point where you have been so discouraged because you have been using that measuring line, may I point you on like this young man. May I tell you that someday in the glory, I believe you will be thankful that you kept in the path. Some day you will praise the Lord that He gave you the privilege of being gathered to His precious name according to His word. Don’t, I beseech you, make comparisons except to measure things by the word of God. May the Lord grant that if there is anyone here who is discouraged that the angel may run and speak to you and point you on to a time of glory that is ahead, maybe even today. The Lord Jesus might come and, oh, what a grand meeting that will be! Every believer will be there. All those young people that perhaps you know at school who are not so gathered will be there. That nice young person that works in the office that really loves the Lord and yet doesn’t see that path will be there. We are all going to be around the Lord some day. We are going to praise Him. There is a glorious time ahead, but what a privilege of seeking to go on, instead of getting discouraged, to look on to the time when the Lord will bless that very place, Jerusalem. He’ll bless them on the earth and we are going to be in the heavenly Jerusalem where every several gate was of one pearl. (Rev. 21:21) I like that expression because it just seems to me it gives this thought, that wherever you enter, what do you see? A perfect display of what the Church is to Christ. A perfect display. Whatever gate you entered, the whole twelve gates, what would you see? Just a perfect display of what Christ is to the Church because it was the pearl for whom He gave Himself.
Just one more in 1 Timothy 4:12. “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself; and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.” Here is Paul writing to a young man named Timothy. He said, “Let no man despise thy youth.” I was very much struck in reading in the 27th chapter of Leviticus that God gives us the value of a man at different ages. From the ages of 5-20 He valued him at 20 shekels, from the ages of 20-60 He valued man at 50 shekels, and from 60 and up, He valued him at 15 shekels. You know, as we get older, we are not worth quite as much. You young people are the ones, if the Lord leaves you here, who are going to go on in the truth of God. It’s true that, when the priests retired from service at 50, they were to keep the charge of the Lord. They were just like the ones that held the reins. But the reins don’t do the running. It’s the young people that do the running. Dear young people, I want to encourage you just like Paul did to Timothy. He wrote to Timothy and he said, “Let no man despise thy youth.” Don’t say, “Well, because I am a young person, there’s nothing for me.” In the evaluation of the 27th of Leviticus, if you are past 20 you are worth over three times as much as the one that is over 60. What a valuable place is yours. What a responsibility, what a privilege is yours. When I have traveled about from assembly to assembly I have noticed that the greatest blessing I have seen in assemblies is young people that want to go on for the Lord Jesus. The old people are blessed by them. In every meeting where the young people are going on for the Lord, the old people are rejoicing because we want to see you blessed and happy. Here Timothy is written to and Timothy is encouraged. Paul said, “Don’t let anyone tell you it’s no use because you’re young. There is something for you to do. There is a place for you to fulfill.” And I want to encourage you. I want to see dear young people who have a heart for Christ, who seek to go on for Him. As we have observed in the other cases, there may be times when we get discouraged. There may be times when we seem to feel that we are pretty much alone, but the Lord values that devotedness. Timothy was living in a time when he saw all Asia turn away from Paul. Paul said, “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me.” (2 Tim. 1:15) But Paul writes and says, “Timothy, don’t you give up, don’t you give up just because there’s a break down. You go on, you be an example ‘in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.’” If the enemy can’t lead you out of the meeting he can, perhaps, lead you to a careless walk inside, and, in that way, instead of being an example yon can he a hindrance. So we find that Timothy is exhorted to go on and be an example. He encourages him, too, about the gift that is in him. There’s many a young person who has a gift. Often as I look at young people I see that they really are young people of ability. I know the devil makes a special target of those who have that kind of ability. Didn’t the king of Syria ask for all the goodliest in the court of Ahab? (1 Kings 20:3) Didn’t King Nebuchadnezzar ask for the choicest in Babylon to bring up in the wisdom of the Chaldees, and isn’t the world the same today? (Dan. 1:3-4) It’s looking for the best of our young people. It’s looking for you to join the ranks in making this world a place of greater progression and more advancement, only for judgment. But, dear young people, the Lord wants you. The Lord wants you. So I just close with those words “continue thou”, continue thou. “Continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.” May the Lord help you through the snares and pitfalls of youth. May He help you and encourage you to live for Him. At the end of your journey you will look back and you will thank Him for His preserving grace. No credit to ourselves, but, you’ll thank Him. When you see in that day of manifestation how He valued any little bit of devotedness to Him, you and I will wonder, “Why didn’t we live more for Him?” He did everything for us. “Continue thou.”
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