THE NEED OF YOUTH IN THE TESTIMONY

C. F. Dadd

2 Chronicles 1: 7–12; Daniel 1: 17–20; 1 John 2: 14 (second part)–17

I have these scriptures before me, beloved brethren, as having in mind that the matter of youth has come before us very much in these meetings. It is obviously true to us all, I am sure, that the testimony will be carried on by youth. Many of us are reaching the sunset of our lives, which means that we will depart and, if the testimony is to continue, the burden of it will fall upon young people. It will be on youth committed to the will of God, young people who have been relating themselves to Christ. The testimony will be in the hands of such, and what we are in is a preparatory time. I think what we have had these two days would relate to that side of things, that young people are being prepared to take on additional responsibility.

It means to start with, that the principle of faith must not only be acknowledged but has to be in the hearts of those who would desire in any way to be serviceable to Christ.

God is looking for young men. I am not saying anything new, the brethren will know that others have said that many years ago. As we look around here today, we can see that the Lord is working with young men, and He is bringing them around and making them serviceable.

He is looking for persons who are prepared to devote themselves; persons who are prepared to say No to the world and Yes to what is of Christ. The enemy has much in the way of what is attractive to offer to young people. The enemy has always had in mind to get his hands on the young. His idea would be to divert you from the pathway of the will of God, and bring you into the pathway that would be conducive to the world and its activities. The enemy paints the world as a very attractive place, and in some ways it may seem to be.

But I can tell you the world will leave you destitute, it will leave you with nothing. But Christ is wanting to build us up and have us in another world of things where Christ is the Sun and the Centre. That is what He is, beloved brethren. He is the Sun and the Centre of another world, and He wants to attract our affections to that world. In the meantime, the enemy would say to you, I have a very attractive world for you. I have a world of things which you will find very glamorous. The enemy would tell us that, but God is labouring with us that He might relate us to Christ who is the centre and the theme of another world. He would provide us with all that we need in order to relate ourselves to Him where He is.

I read about Solomon. Solomon was a young man, and God put a question to Solomon that would be very testing; maybe it would be testing to you as a young person or to me as an older person. God said to Solomon, Tell Me what you would like; “In that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, Ask what I shall give thee”. Solomon was able for this. Solomon was a man marked by what was spiritual. But I am challenging you and myself as to how we would stand if this evening, in a dream, the Lord appeared to us and said, “Ask what I shall give thee”. You might find many different answers that you could give to God if He asked you a question such as this. But Solomon was up to this, he was up to it morally; that is where we are tested, beloved brethren, as to where we are morally, where we are under the eye of an all-knowing God. Solomon says, “Thou hast shewn unto David my father great loving-kindness, and hast made me king in his stead. Now, Jehovah Elohim, let thy word unto David my father be firm; for thou hast made me king over a people numerous as the dust of the earth”. He would have been about eighteen years old when he became king of this great people, and here is God putting this question to him. I put that question to every one of us here this afternoon, just ask yourself that question, What

would you say to God that you would like Him to give you.

Immediately what Solomon does is to relate his answer to the interests of God. Now that is a very fine thing, that Solomon, a young man, in his teens, relates his answer to the interests of God, “Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this thy great people?” What it must have meant to God, “Give me now wisdom and knowledge”, what a fine thing. He would be well able to move among the people of the kingdom, of which he says, “a people numerous as the dust of the earth”. And then he adds, “that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this thy great people?” I believe, beloved brethren, that is one of the areas where we need a lot of help. We need help in administration, knowing what to do, knowing how to do it and when to do it. You know there are things in our localities that have been going on a long time and they go on by default; nothing is done, things just carry on and we hope that they will get better.

But Solomon says, “that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this thy great people?” So he has in mind moving in and out amongst the saints, and arriving at judgments that would be compatible with the mind of God.

It is a great thing to have the people of God in your affections. 1 would appeal to every one of us as to that, that we might love one another. You know it is basic to our coming together that there is love amongst ourselves. Someone was speaking today about 1 Corinthians 13, that great love chapter. How we love to read that chapter because it is so full, and yet to many of us it might be just a picture on the wall, whereas what the Lord is after is the true idea of affection amongst His people. I think, beloved, our affection for Christ Himself is measured very much by our love for the people of God. Our love for Christ is shown in the way we embrace the saints in our own affections. So that he says, “for who can judge this thy great people?” Think of the respect that Solomon had for the people of God. Is this the way we speak about the saints? We need to have love for all the saints, that is what the apostle Paul says (see Ephesians 1: 15). How testing that becomes in relation to our own localities, and yet the Lord is saying that one of the great things amongst us is our love for each other. So God takes account of this, and He said to Solomon, “Because this was in thy heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honour, nor the life of them that hate thee, neither yet hast asked long life; but hast asked for thyself wisdom and knowledge, that thou mayest judge my people, over whom I have made thee king: wisdom and knowledge are granted unto thee”. So therefore we see how God valued the desire of Solomon. God values his judgment of the people and his desire that the administration might be according to the divine standard. We might think we can work to another standard, but in finality we have to come back to the fact that the divine standard has to have its way. This is what is indicated here with Solomon, that the divine standard is going to be his answer.

Therefore God says to him, “wisdom and knowledge are granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall any after thee have the like”. Look at the pleasure of God in this young king. He is not only going to grant him the wisdom and the knowledge that he asked for, but He is going to grant him very much more. I think that is a principle in Christianity, the idea of more and more (see Philippians 1: 9). We know from other scriptures that he was immediately tested as to the matter of administrative wisdom, and how he brilliantly shone like Christ in the way he did things. I am suggesting that this is open to us in our measure. I do not think God is saying to us today, Tell Me what you want, I will grant it to you; but I think God is testing us as to our desires and he is

testing us as to our prayers, how we pray and what we pray for. Most of us pray alone, I suppose, we might pray with our husbands and wives, but the fact of the matter is God hears our prayers and we are being tested by what we pray for, and what we pray for is an indication of what is in our hearts. So Solomon is very pleasing to God and God greatly blesses him.

I thought we would just look at Daniel for a moment. Reference was made to Daniel within the last two days, and his three companions. These men were prisoners of war.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had taken Jerusalem; he took its contents to his own country and amongst them were these young people. One of the important things to understand, beloved brethren, is that the devil is after the young. They are what he wants to get, Give me the youths, that is what an opposing king said at one time. You can take your old people, you can go into the desert, we will let you go, but you leave the youths with me; the power of continuity was going to remain with Pharaoh. Moses said, “We will go with our young and with our old” (Exodus 10: 9), we are not going to leave our possessions with you.

But that is what the king would say, You give me your young. You go with the older ones, but I will take the young people, I will have the power of continuity in my hand. But Moses, the man of God, said, Oh no. How he well represented God in what he said, “there shall not a hoof be left behind”, Exodus 10: 26. Pharaoh had to come to that, in type the power of the devil had to give and not a hoof was left behind, they went out in rank. They went out with all their possessions; not only did they go out with their possessions but they spoiled the Egyptians. That is what God is doing. We know we are on the winning side. Christ is in control, He will have the final word. Pharaoh had to come to that, so that Pharaoh had to let them all go.

Here we find that these four youths were amongst those who were specially selected to appear before

Nebuchadnezzar. And he gave them names, “among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah”, Daniel 1: 6. They were there amongst the chosen ones to stand before the king. As for these four youths, “God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams”. Now this was the outcome of the fact that they would not pollute themselves with the king’s delicate food or the wine that he would give them to drink. They rejected it. They would not pollute themselves. It says in Daniel 1: 8, “And Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not pollute himself with the king’s delicate food, nor with the wine which he drank”. These would have been very young persons, maybe in their early twenties. Could you stand up against that, beloved young people? Could you stand up against the enticement of such power? That is really what Nebuchadnezzar represented, and he is offering them the best; he is saying. Here is the best that Babylon can give, and these young men say, No. What a fine thing when young people, and old people, too, learn how to say, No. What a fine day that is when we can say, No, to what the devil has to offer even though it be very attractive.

This food, these circumstances would have been very attractive. You are going to go in before Nebuchadnezzar, you are going to stand before the king. That would be an enticement in itself, would it not? We will give you honours, we will give you everything that goes with it, we will give you the adornment. In the meantime we are going to give you the king’s delicate food so that you can look your best, but these young men say, No. It might be that things come along to entice you in business. Learn to say, No. That is your safety. These young men say, No, we do not want that food. We want pulse and water. What a difference.

They are saying, in effect, We want Christ. That was their source for food, Christ and the Spirit. As they fed on the pulse and water it says, “And at the end of ten

days their countenances appeared fairer and were fatter in flesh than all the youths that ate of the king’s delicate food” (Daniel 1: 15). You have young brethren in the local readings, and you can soon find out if they are reading the ministry. It comes out in what they have to say, and the part they take in the service of God. That food gets into the soul and finds its expression Godward, and this is what it was with these young men. They would not take what the enemy had to offer despite the fact it was so attractive.

So they say, No, and we know how it worked out because it says, “And in all matters of judicious wisdom, as to which the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the scribes and magicians that were in all his realm”. I am saying, No, to the world, and it puts me at no disadvantage. That is what this eunuch thought. He feared the king if their faces were worse looking than the youths who were of their age. But Daniel says in effect, We will feed on Christ, we will feed on the Spirit, and we will let Christ take care of those details. It says, “And at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and they stood before the king”. There they were, really clothed in Christ, their faces were fairer and fatter, they were taking on the features of Christ. We have only touched the beginning, but these men are honoured, they are raised up, they are not at a disadvantage. It is not a disadvantage, beloved brethren, to be Christians. It is not a sign of weakness to be depending on God and believing on Christ. So that they appear fairer and fatter, and it says, too, “he found them ten times better than all the scribes and magicians that were in all his realm”. They were only tested ten days, but in ten days they showed up ten times better. God can do everything. He is able to work things out according to His own mind and He is able

to see us through. There is no matter too great for God. That is what we ought to get imbibed into our souls, that there is no matter too great for God. We need confidence, we need confidence in Christ, we need confidence in God.

This scripture in John’s epistle has been referred to a couple of times over this weekend, and I thought I would refer to it now, because John writes an epistle which is very faithful. As he writes he says to the young men, “I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you”. He is not speaking about physical strength—sometimes in our youth we are very interested in this—but he is speaking about really being strong morally and spiritually, and he says, “the word of God abides in you”. You have abiding in you the word of God, and you have overcome the wicked one. I hope that all our young men and all our young sisters have overcome the wicked one. The wicked one is very active, trying to overturn what God is doing in the soul of the believer. It says of the young men, “ye have overcome the wicked one”. I trust that is so, and I would appeal to our young brethren, do not let the wicked one get a handle on you. Do not let him get a grip on you. We have power on our side, we have Christ. The woman in the garret said that, did she not? She said, ‘I have Christ, what need I more’.

Then he goes on to say, “Love not the world, nor the things in the world”. That is a test, is it not? Love not the world. It is very near to our hearts to love the world. But I believe, with the help of the Spirit of God, we can hold those things where they belong. The fact of the matter is you have a world of things which God provides which is far above what the enemy can provide. So he says, Love not the world. Why does he say that? Because it is a distinct possibility that we will love the world. He says, “If any one love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”. There is not a person in this room, I believe, including our young people, who does not want to have a sense that the love of the Father is in us. Everything else is weakening around us, yet we can have a sense that the love of the Father is in us. It is something that will stay with us. A lot of things we shall leave behind. The Lord is saying to us here, “Love not the world”. If anyone does love the world He would say, “the love of the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing, and its lust, but he that does the will of God abides for eternity”. It is a fine thing to be numbered among those who do the will of God. Tomorrow, if the Lord will, we shall come up to the Supper, we shall be moving according to the thought of the will of God. The One that we shall remember did the will of God, “Lo, I come ... to do, O God, thy will”, Hebrews 10: 7. What an example He has left for us, beloved, that we might be here in accord with the will of God. May it be so for His name’s sake.

Address at Edmonton
5 July 1997