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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/oswald-mcleod/young-men-god-used/
Turn to the New Testament, please, and to the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 4. 1 Timothy, chapter 4, and let us read from verse 12. But no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example to 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 is given thee by prophecy, which is laying on to the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy property may appear to all.
Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in so, for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. It gives me great concern and exercise before God in regard to speaking at a conference like this, one has a desire to have something that will be helpful to the saints of God.
We have been hearing already this morning, as well as last night, of the necessity of clean vessels. Now, I've read to you of three young men, and I think we can clearly see of these three young men, they were clean vessels.
Now, they lived in very different circumstances, but they were young men. In Josiah, the last of the godly kings that reigned over Judah, he was anointed to the throne at the age of eight. At the age of sixteen, he seemed to have a turning point for God, and then he served him, and we'll notice a few things about him.
Daniel, who lived a number of years later, was in an altogether different situation. He was of the king's seat, undoubtedly, but he was a captive in the land of Babylon. And yet, a clean vessel, he was used mightily of God in that land.
In the New Testament, we read of Timothy, in an altogether different situation, a young man who used to do the work of an evangelist, a young man who trained under the great Apostle Paul, but he was a clean vessel sanctified in meat for the Master's use.
I think you can readily see that I have, especially in my mind today, words of exhortation for the young. When I was a young man, I used to hear it said more than once that a man's Christian life, or a woman's for that matter, was formed in the first five years of their Christian experience.
And I think there's a great deal of truth in that. Now here is this young man, Josiah, and he came to the throne at the age of eight. We have another young man earlier in the history of Judah by the name of Joash.
He came to the throne at the age of seven. He was guided by his uncle Jehoiada, and he served God all the days of Jehoiada, but then went astray in his old age. Now this man, Josiah, lived only to be thirty-nine years of age, and God used him in the latter part, in the early part of his life, and all through it.
He was the last of the godly kings, as I've already stated, and he brought about a measure of revival in Judah, but it was only a feigned revival, as we have in the book of Jeremiah chapter three. I want you to note that he lived in the day about eighteen years before the servitude of Judah began under the captivity brought about by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
Another interesting thing about this man is that he was mentioned by name approximately three hundred and fifty years before he was born. We took you back to the thirteenth chapter of the first book of Kings, when we have the altar that Jeroboam had set up.
He is mentioned by name by the prophet of Judah, and that in due time, when he came into prominence, he would actually burn bones on the altar of Bethel, and while that is not definitely referred to here, it is referred to in the book of Kings.
So it's an interesting thing, and here is something for you young people to keep in mind, and that is the accuracy with which God fulfills his word. Now think of it, three hundred and fifty years before he came on the scene, he was foretold by God by the prophet from Judah.
In due time, God fulfilled his word and brought this man into prominence. Now I want to try to impress upon the young people here today, Brother Gray just mentioned the fact that he was young once, and so were we, but a long time ago.
We had our problems when we were young, maybe different from what the young have today, but we had problems, and we had to cope with them, and in them, I hope, we learned a little bit about God. As our days are coming to an end on earth, we are not a stranger to that, and it is no use for us to try to hide ourselves from it.
I would like to be able to encourage the young men and young women in our midst, we thank God for you. We're happy to see you here at the conference again. It's an encouraging thing to me to see the young people coming to our conference.
I hope you've all come with exercise of soul to get something for your souls from God, something that will stabilize you in your Christian life. I have been at conferences, and sad to say, young people during the ministry have been found out in the corridors of the building, and some of them were shopping and all that sort of thing.
I hope that will not be the case with any that are here today. I do hope that you come with a real desire in your soul to hear what God the Lord will say unto me, that you get words that will encourage you to go on for God.
Now these three were mentioned here were young men, very young men. Think of this boy at the age of 16 on the throne of Judah, and he had an exercise first of all to build, or I should say to repair the house of God.
He began to seek God first of all, and then there was a desire in his soul to repair the house of God, and he made arrangements for that. We didn't take time to read very much about that, but the thought was that he had an exercise regarding the condition of the house of God.
Now that was a literal house built by Solomon, but men had risen up in the meantime, and they departed from God's truth, and the house is gone into repair. But he was a young man with exercise of soul to do something for the glory of God and to repair the house of the Lord.
There's a much easier thing to tear down a building than it is to build it up. A few years ago, not far from where we live, there was an old Lutheran church, and they built a new one and then erased the old, and they never got it.
They started in on a Monday morning with a derrick and a big iron ball on the end of a cable, and they went to work. On Thursday morning, everything was gone. Only an empty piece of ground where that building formerly stood for many, many years.
Far easier to tear down an assembly than it is to build it up. Now let me ask you, young man, today, what is your exercise regarding the assembly? I hope that you appreciate the fact that you're associated with an assembly gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus.
I consider it one of the greatest privileges on earth to be associated with a company of believers, even though it may be small, gathered unto the name of the Lord Jesus, maintaining a scriptural testimony for him here below.
What is your exercise? Are you trying to put something into that assembly to build it up? I hope you're not trying to undermine the saints of God and destroy what is of God in that assembly. A brother has just now mentioned the fact that many are leaving the assemblies of God, going to a place where they have more liberty to carry out the dictates of the flesh than they are to carry out the plain principles of the word of God.
Keep in mind this boy, a young king, and it is exercise for us to build up the house of God. We're not talking today about a literal house of stone or a brick or anything like that. We're talking about the house of God, God's testimony on earth, the assembly of people gathered unto his fearless name.
I would urge you and I plead with you, get exercise before God to put your best into the assembly. God hasn't brought you into that assembly just merely to occupy a chair. You have a responsibility and the Lord helped you to assume that responsibility and like Josiah of old, seek to build up that which is of God upon earth.
I noticed another thing about this man. When the word of God was found by Hilkiah the priest, this young man, when the word of God was read to him, he trembled before it and he wept before God. The word of God had an effect upon him and it had a place in his life henceforth.
And later on we find him teaching, reading and teaching the word of God, the young and the old and all that could understand. There was a place for the word of God in his life. And the word of God influenced him greatly.
As the word of God was read and he saw how far short Israel had come from the divine pattern set forth in that word, he humbled himself, he prayed before God and he said, to seek the mind of God that was given to him in reply to his request as to what the Lord would have them to do.
The word of God had a definite place in his life. Now let me ask you, young men, young women, what place does the word of God have in your life? A number of years ago I asked a young woman, a Sunday school scholar that had gotten saved in the assembly at the time, sorry to say she's left.
I asked her in one occasion when she saved a year or two if she had read the word of God through as yet. She said no. A young woman a number of years ago, long since gone home to heaven, in a letter I had from her, she said she'd had a lot of doubts about her soul's salvation and she was unhappy.
And as she looked into her life to find out why this came about, she said, I came to the conclusion it was neglect of the word of God. She began to read more diligently in the scripture and she was happier in soul until the Lord took her away at the early age of 51 years of life.
This young man had a place in his heart for the word of God and he trembled before it and he wept before it. Now let me ask you, what place does the word of God have in your life? If I could encourage you, both young men and women, to devote more time to the reading of the word of God, apply it to your life, find God's divine pattern in it for your life and for the assembly, it'll be a blessing to you and it'll be useful.
I'd like to see young men today get exercised. It has given me a lot of concern of late as to why we have so many in the assemblies of God, young men, and you never hear their voice, occasionally maybe to give out a hymn, but never a word in prayer or in worship.
I wonder why it is. Can we stir your heart today, young believer, to settle down, to read the word of God, to get it into your life, and then to obey it and try to be useful for God in the assembly, also in testimony for him among men?
It gives me a lot of concern in later years to notice how few young men there are going out in the work of God in the United States. It's appalling. Is there not a reason for it? I hope that what we say from these young men, and I hope you'll consider it further when I'm finished, that here were three young men in different circumstances altogether, but every one in the word of God had a place in their life.
You'll notice that in connection with Daniel. How did Daniel know, as a lad taken out of Judea, carried down into Babylonian captivity, and there in the king's palace for a special purpose, the king of Babylon wanted young men that would conform to the pattern of Babylon, young men that could stand before him, but he didn't anticipate he was dealing with young men that would stand against him, as we have later on in the case of Daniel and in the case of his three fellows.
Young men that had ability to stand even before the king at the risk of their lives, the risk of being cast into the burning fiery furnace. There were men with character and conviction that even led them to stand before the king in the face of the burning furnace.
Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's meat. How did he know defilement would come from the king's meat? He knew the book of Leviticus. He knew the diet that the people of Israel must follow.
And the diet offered him by the king of Babylon was far different from this and would bring ceremonial defilement if he ate it. And so he requested that he be spared from it. And God brought him in a favor.
And you know the story. Daniel triumphed. At the end of the ten days, he and his fellows are much better in appearance than those that had eaten of the king's meat. And so the request was granted and Daniel prospered.
I read of Timothy. The same thing was given to him in the fourth chapter, the importance of reading the word of God. Let no man despise our youth that indicate he was young. But Timothy had associated with the apostle Paul.
Timothy was one of Paul's converts. We read of him first in the beginning of Acts chapter 16, well reported of by the brethren when Paul came there evidently in the second visit. He'd been saved previously, taught the word of God from infancy by his mother and his grandmother.
And now Paul sees in a young man, a man suitable for the work of God, and he took him with him and he had the commendation of his brethren. Let no man despise our youth, but be thou an example to the believers.
And so he's exhorted to continue in these things and to give himself to the reading of the word of God. This is essential for spiritual development and for the work of God, the necessity of having the mind filled with the word of God.
Someone quoted, I think in prayer last night, if I remember, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Brother Gray just mentioned regrets. I look back over many years in Christ and many years in the Lord's work, and I have regrets, more than one.
There's one regret that stands out prominently in my memory. It is this, the times that I missed giving attendance to reading and to the study of the word of God. Had I my life to live over again knowing what I do now, I devote far more time to my Bible, to the reading of it and the studying of it, and learning the truth of God.
What little I've been able to learn, I've gathered along the way and I'm thankful for it. But I recognize that much opportunity was lost. So I speak to you, young men, on whom will fall the responsibility of assembly testimony, the responsibility of the furtherance of the work of God when older ones are gone.
Are you fitting yourself for this responsibility? I notice again, in connection with Josiah, I link these three men together, young men, to be on my heart for days, and I hope the Lord will encourage your hearts from the example of these three young men.
Young men that are an exercise before God. Young men that were men of the book. Young men that were useful in their circumstances and in their generation. There is great potential for you, young men, in the assembly fellowship today to devote yourselves for God and to be useful.
But I say to the young women, this applies to you as well. You not have a place of public ministry as brethren have, but sisters are spoken of in Psalm 144 and the cornerstones polished out of the similitude of a palace.
Much depends upon you and your prayers. You have a desire in your heart, of course, and it's only natural to have a family of your own, a husband, and a home. Be exercised before God and prepare yourself that when you enter into the marriage relationship and establish a home, that you're going to be a spiritual help to that man that God may bring into your life.
The late Mr. Sam McEwen used to say, and we quote from him frequently, I notice, at least I notice myself doing it, I remember many of his sayings. One was that a man can live for God only so far as his wife will let him.
Keep that in mind, you young women. Devote yourselves to the things of God and pray regarding your future partner in life. And if God sees fit not to bring that young man into your life, and it is mine for you to remain singular opportunists to serve God, but prepare yourselves for a life that may please into God, where then the family relationship are outside of it.
The Lord bless you, the Lord keep you, and the Lord exercise you. Give yourselves to the things of God. There's opportunity to honor him and to glorify him in your life here below. My time is gone. Much more could be said, but let me mention this much.
God used this young man, Josiah, to bring about a good measure of recovery in Israel, in Judah, and it was the last recovery before they were carried into Babylonian captivity. God used him. Jeremiah 3 already referred to tells us it was fainted, it was unreal, but there was a measure of it.
He brought about it. It shows the influence that one man can be for good and for God. Go in for pleasing God, brethren, sisters, whether young or old. The little while we're left here upon earth, the Lord enabled us to go in for the things of God.
The last point I want to deal with is in the last verses we read about this man, Josiah, and that is that his record was written. He served God all the days of his life, followed the divine pattern. He kept the Passover according to the divine pattern in a way it had not been done for generations.
There was a measure, a good measure of recovery, although short-lived, but it does say that all that he did, the record is in heaven. We were reminded last night by Brother Maxwell of divine records, referring from the book of 1 Chronicles.
Remember there is a record being written, your life and mine, recorded in heaven. That record will be opened at the judgment seat of Christ, and only what's done for Christ will last. So I trust the few remarks we made in regard to these three young men in different circumstances of life, the opportunities presented to each one, the place of prominence the word of God had in their lives to guide them into the right ways of the Lord.
The Lord helped each one of us to go in for it, the little while, until he comes again, for the record is in heaven, and we'll meet it again at the judgment seat of Christ. What is more to be desired than so to live upon earth, that in that day we receive well done good and faithful servant.