Andrew Johns - Examples of Youth in Service & Action - Class 3 - Jeremiah - Suffering the Reproach of Christ in Youth

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   We now have much pleasure in calling forth our brother Andrew Johns, as he speaks to us to this title. Jeremiah Suffering the reproach of Christ in youth.

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   My dearly beloved brethren and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ and dear young people, Jeremiah. By any account and by any measure, was one of Israel. ‘S greatest prophets.

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   And he lived in the time of Israel. ‘S. Worst Apostasy. He was born in the reign of the worst king that Judah ever had and grew up most of his young days in the reign of 1 of Judah’s greatest kings, Josiah. In his days when he was growing up both the world at large, in the nations, and also within his own nation and society, there was constant change and great turmoil, great uncertainty. And if that doesn’t match our day, I don’t know what does. Constant change, great uncertainty and turmoil. We can scarcely imagine the depths to which Judah had reached during the times of Manassa’s long 55 year reign over Judah.

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   This man systematically destroyed any effective godliness within the nation. He erected altars to the Assyrian gods, right? In the middle. Of the. Temple and pray Pagan practices, including sacred prostitution, were brought right into the middle of the nation, into the temple precincts themselves. He incorporated every single one of the ways of the nation.

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   That you could possibly imagine into the life of everyday ordinary Jiites. He even sanctioned and supported the occult. That’s how low he got. He encouraged human. Sacrifice, and when any voice was raised against anything that he did. The voice was silenced. As the head was removed, he decimated the priesthood, all the active prophets.

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   Were in hiding. And. To top it all off, in his. Day, Brethren and sisters. The Bible was lost in the House of God. It was lost. And it’s an amazing thing in his life that at the end he repented. That’s not the amazing thing. The amazing thing was that God accepted his repentance after. All.

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   That he had done to his people. And though he. Tried in the last few years to reform the nation, it was to no. Practical effect. He had destroyed everyone that could help him, and lamelessly he went about trying to put back into place what he’d systematically destroyed through 50 years of abominable apostasy and in his reign with that legacy. Jeremiah was born and his son Ammon came onto the throne and for only two years before he was assassinated, immediately turned the nation back to where they’d come. From.

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   They were so steep, you know, that’s where they wanted to go and he just took the people straight back to where they wanted to go and after. His death. Josiah, an 8 year old lad. Takes up the throne. And it was during these years, Josiah’s early years, that Jeremiah, too, was a young boy. It wasn’t easy to grow up and love God in those days. The Bible was lost.

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   Nobody loved righteousness. Almost throughout the whole of the nation. Of course, there was always a remnant. There were a few individuals. Here or there. That had hidden for many years. Through through Manassas reign, but the whole of society in general was corrupt to the core. There was no sense of morality. Left just like today, idolatry was was abounding everywhere just like today, and there was a continual self-interest and self seeking from the highest to the lowest strata of society just like today. Yet in a Royal Court in Jerusalem and in a little village to the north of Jerusalem, a little village called Anathoth, God was preparing 2. Serious young Minded 6.

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    Or 7 year olds. To take on monumental tasks in the nation. The environment was ungodly to say the least. It was seductive and corrupt. And it’s remarkable that these two lads ever sought Yahweh at all, But even more remarkable that by the time they got into their early teens, they had already set the direction of their lives to seek with all their heart the God of David, their father. What an amazing thing that is.

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    And Josiah, at the age of 16, we read, began to seek the God of David his father, with all his heart and soul and might. At 16 young people, his life was committed. The direction of his life was. Fixed and he never deviated. You look at the record. Of his life and it says and he turned up to the left or to the right all his days from 16, he never deviated. Think about him at school, young people or at work. And at 18, he began the most incredible purge that Judah had ever seen 18 years of old.

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    Eight years of age and he’s out there not dictating from the palace. He’s out in the field saying I want this idol smashed, I want this fall down. This is not. They can’t learn anything about Yahweh when this is here. Get rid of it. Take that out of that person’s house. This has got to go. Change this.

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    And he was there pulling it down, right? Where it needed to be done. He was no theorist Josiah, and it was at that time that Jeremiah enters the scene. Chapter 1 of Jeremiah, verse one. The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah of the priests. That were in. Anathoth of the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of Yahweh came in the days of Josiah the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year.

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    Of his reign, Josiah is 21 years of age, and Jeremiah is called by God. Verse 4 says And then the word of Yahweh came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then I said, Ah, I don’t know Yahweh. Behold, I cannot speak.

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    For I’m a child or a youth. I’m only a youth. The RSV says. God called him from the womb because the depth of wickedness was so great that he needed to influence this man in his very, very young days, just like he had to influence Josiah, whom God had foreseen many. Years. Before and prophesied of his coming. And he says I’m only a youth.

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    We don’t know exactly his age. He was probably in his late teens or very early 20s. And I like to think that he’s around about Josiah’s age. He certainly was, of that approximate age, about 20 at the time.

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    And all of our young people. Would be able to cite second of Peter chapter 1 and verse 21. Don’t need to turn to it. We all ought to be able to cite it. A verse that we might use very often in lectures that says prophecy came in old time, came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men. Of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, holy men of God and we have a a 20 year.

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    Old. Through whom God moved in the midst of this apostate nation, a holy man of God. At that age he’s called a holy man of God. What a tremendous testimony that is to the character and to the mind of this young individual. Remember that the law of God is lost. The principles of the truth had been passed on by faithful parents.

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    And it’s an amazing thing that through all of those years of Manassas reign and before Hezekiah’s time, all the years of apostasy before that, that there was any semblance and any knowledge of Yahweh’s will and purpose still. Left that there was. Anyone still in the nation? But there obviously was, and we find by carefully reading through the times of Jeremiah and the historical records in Chronicles and Kings. We find that there were a few very faithful individuals. Who upheld Yahweh’s way and nurtured some of these? Young men who came on to the scene at this time, you know when the law of Yahweh was actually found in the temple. In the house.

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    Of God, of all places, chapter 15 tells us. Well, Jeremiah himself tells us. What he thought. Jeremiah 15 and verse 16. I believe this is a reference to the finding of the Book of the Law and the House. And he says, thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, for I am called by thy name, O Yahweh, Elohim of hosts.

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    What an amazing thing the Word of God was found when he was in his early 20s Possibly. And he found he saw it as a delight that he ate up. Very quickly, how many of us, brothers and sisters and young people, could truly say those words with all honesty, without a twinge of conscience?

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    Thy word is unto me a joy and. Rejoicing of mine heart. All we say, we’re people of the book, and very often you’ll hear at lectures, in introductions to our lectures that Christadelphians are a group of Bible students. Aren’t we, brother and sisters? Have we got that spirit? The word of Yahweh was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. Where do we?

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    Spend our time That’ll tell us whether it’s the joy and rejoicing of our heart. What we’re thinking about day by day will tell us whether it’s the rejoicing. And thinking of our hearts, but it was to him and when he found. It he ate it up. But you know why he was so excited? Well, look at the last part of that verse. For I am called by thy name, O Yahweh, Elohim of hosts. He saw himself as as being called to be part of. That glorious throng in the future when God will be manifested in a group of mighty ones in the earth. He’s been called and he saw himself there. And anything that had to do with Yahweh’s purpose. That God had revealed had to interest him. No wonder God chose that man and He told him back in chapter 1 when he gave him his Commission in his youth in verse. Seven, he said to him.

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    But Yahweh said unto me, Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith Yahweh. Then Yahweh put forth his hand and touched my mouth.

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    And Yahweh said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down, to build and to plant. What a Commission. But out of all that, there would have been one thing that stuck in his mind.

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    Be not afraid of their faces. He knew what the men of Judah were like. He knew how ungodly he’d seen his own father in. Trepidation, no doubt, in the in the days of Manasseh. There were faces in Judah, brethren and sisters, make no mistake about it, there were faces in Judah that you would be afraid of with just ’cause.

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    There were some awful. Faces Zedekiah, the son of Chenaniah Pasha the priest. Cruel and ruthless men, ungodly to the core. There was Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son. Zedekiah They were faces to be afraid of, but God said. Don’t be afraid because I’m with you, Jeremiah. I will be with you and I’ll put my words in your mouth and everything that I tell you, you’ll speak. But you know, it also meant this brothers and sisters and young people.

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    Then you would have to speak face to face. You remember we were talking this afternoon about about Samson. And it was a. Different issue altogether. When it came face to face with individuals was different. It’s different when we get into the world face to face. That’s not a matter here of Jeremiah’s Commission saying I taking Yahweh’s word and written down on a leaflet and poking it in someone’s letter letterbox and moving on or or writing a letter and saying now you should do this and Yahweh says this. His mission was.

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    Personal He had to go up and front people to their face and tell them what Yahweh said, and it was to hostile men, ungodly men, people who didn’t want to hear what Yahweh thought and didn’t want to hear what he thought, and as soon as any restriction. Was out of the way. They’d knock him to the ground. Well, there we get an insight, brethren and sisters, to the. Drama of jeremiah’s life he was torn apart by his allegiance and obedience and tested to the very. Limit by the work that Yahweh had asked him to do. To be a.

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    Witness in the midst of the nation for godliness, and if ever there was a young man under extreme pressure, pressure that was brought about just because he believed the truth, here it is. Pressure to conform, pressure to deny the truth. To give up a godly. Life pressure from ungodly men, from unprincipled, hostile men, from immoral men. And Jeremiah lays his.

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    Soul bare In his prophecy it’s more. Than just a series. Of projections into the future, Jeremiah’s prophecy has got very many personal insights into the character of this man. But look at verse 8 which we just looked at. Be not afraid of their faces. That’s picked up again. In in verse 17, a little further on in the chapter, when God says in summing up what his mission was. Thou will therefore gird up thy loins, and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee, and be not dismayed at their faces.

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    It’s repeated again, lest I confound thee before them. For behold, I have made thee this day at a fenced city, in an iron pillar and brazen walls against the whole land of against the whole land. Now you think of these words, I want you to remember them because we’re going to come. Back to them again a little later tonight.

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    Is to be an iron pillar of brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings, against the Princess, against the priests, and against the people. From the very, very top of society to the very bottom. Everyone’s going to be against him. How would you like that laid upon your shoulders at the age of 20?

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    And goes continues Yahweh. And they shall fight against you, Jeremiah, but they shall not. Prevail, for I am with thee to deliver. Them are there’s. Consolation in that is there not, brethren, sisters, consolation on which Jeremiah rested very heavily in later life? But faith is no academic matter. Jeremiah’s told to not worry or be deflected by what he saw, what he felt, what he heard, but just to remember the promise. And there’s enormous faith required for that. That’s faith against all odds to maintain a line and to. Stick with it.

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    Despite what people are saying, despite what they’re doing, that’s the sort of faith that endures. To the end and to the end, he endured.

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    Verse 3 It came, the word of Yahweh came in the days of Jehoiah Kim, the son of Josiah the king of Judah, unto the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, unto the carrying away carrying away of Jerusalem captive. In the 5th month this. Was not just to be a five day wonder for more than 40 years. For more than 40 years, Jeremiah face to face was to bear the opposition, which came because he stood up for truth. God wanted to in fact, a.

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    Single. Consistent and faithful witness through the turbulent period of the death throw of Judah’s Kingdom. And in Jeremiah he found such a man, And Jeremiah entered, as we said, a minute. Ago, on to the scene. As a young man in the early time of Josiah’s reforms, he was no doubt attracted to this man, to this king. And felt keenly he was of the priestly family and would have had much to do with what happened in Jerusalem. Been in very close contact and it’s. Highly likely that his father Hilkiah was influential anyway in the court of Josiah and had some quite important input into him and the direction of his life. And so it’s likely that there was a very close relationship even in boyhood between these two. But as soon as Josiah’s reform got going, it’s evident that Jeremiah got swung his.

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    Whole weight right behind it and the early chapters of his. Prophecy and through. At least to chapter 6 and maybe a little further than that are set in the times of Josiah. And we find that he denounced the people and warned them and exposed the sins of the nation. As Josiah went around and smashed the idols and tried to reform the people and and to put the worship of Yahweh in place. So Jeremiah was coming along behind and encouraging the people.

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    In the streets. In their houses, wherever they met, wherever they were, Jeremiah was there to tell them, and Josiah was there too. You know, Josiah didn’t sit on his throne and give orders. He moved. From one end of the land to the other. And imagine, you can imagine a bond forming between this young king and the young prophet in their early 20s.

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    They both had an intense hatred for the iniquity which had swept the nation and had brought it, brought it to its knees. And they both had a desire, an intense desire for what was right. And true and godly and honest. They had an enthusiasm and optimism. Both of them. To bring the nation finally back to God and they. Never, ever lived up.

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    Through all their life trying to do do that, they had boundless energy, commitment, commitment, young people to A cause. And they both had their lives in order at 16, you know, and around Josiah and hence Jeremiah gathered. A group of remarkable, there’s no other word for it, remarkable young godly men. There was Zedekiah.

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    Sorry, Zephaniah, who was Josiah’s cousin? Probably Habakkuk was. Young at this time. There is a. Hiacam the the son of Shaphan who we read about in the prophecy itself. There was Bayrak. And a little later. There was Ezekiel. There was Daniel. There was Daniel’s friends, there was Mordecai. And. That’s not to mention some of those. Who were a little.

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    Older like Holder the prophetess and Schaffen and Hilkiah and the Racobites and Uriah the Prophet there were. Quite a significant number who emerged with faithful hearts to support Josiah. And to get. Behind jeremiah’s call to the nation to reform young. People, let’s stop. For a moment, in youth, young people can have an enormous effect not only on their peers, but on older brethren and sisters as well.

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    When there is enthusiasm and zeal and a godly spirit. And here we have a young king in his early 20s and a young prophet in his early 20s, and they’re going about trying to reform the nation. And we know very well that they didn’t ever succeed in doing that totally on the outward appearance. It appeared that the nation had turned. Everybody was doing exactly what Josiah wanted, but it was faintedly they hadn’t affected the hearts because for centuries.

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    Sin had eaten away the vitals of that nation and the people just gravitated back to those things. But that enthusiasm of Josiah and Jeremiah, which was contagious, developed around them some very precious gems who were inspired by Jeremiah and Josiah particularly. And they in turn encouraged the reforms and Josiah’s great work to go forward, encouraged him to move forward, to do exactly that.

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    And though there was disappointment during the reforms, they didn’t. Get up, give up. You have a look at chapter 5 and at verse one. And here’s what Jeremiah says here. And during the time of Josiah, Josiah’s reforms, God says, run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now known. Seek in the broad places thereof if you can. Find a man, if there be any that. Execute judgement that seeketh truth, and I will pardon it. And Jeremiah and Josiah tragically knew the truth of that.

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    They knew they could run through all the streets of Jerusalem and they wouldn’t find any who sought truth. Despite the fact that they all looked as though they were doing the right thing in the. Hearts things had not changed. Verse 2 and though they say Yahweh. Liveth. Surely, he says, they swear. Falsely, O Yahweh, are not thine eyes upon the truth.

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    Thou hast stricken them that they have not grieved. Thou hast consumed them, but they have. Refused to receive. Correction, they have made their faces. Harder than rock, they have refused to reform. And you can feel the spirit of this man who wanted to change the nation had tried. For as long as he could with Josiah and the other faithfuls who supported him to turn that nation around.

49. 27:38

    And and all they met. With was outward external change. Nothing changed inside. But they never gave up. And for 19 years, Josiah pushed forward resolutely with the support of Jeremiah and others. But you know, brothers and sisters, it was Jeremiah and not Josiah that bore the brunt of what was happening at the coalface. What?

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    Was happening down there in the. Streets and in the houses of Jerusalem and all the cities across Judah, there was, there really, certainly still was ostracism and barbed words and hateful looks and threats. And Josiah didn’t receive those. He was the king, and if anyone dared speak against the worship of Yahweh in his presence, he dealt with them.

51. 28:28

    And the people knew that. But they could say what they liked to Jeremiah. They could say what they felt couldn’t touch him because they knew he was the King’s friend. And in some ways, Jeremiah’s task, though subordinate to Josiah’s in the reforms, was much more difficult. Don’t be afraid of their faces, said Yahweh.

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    Their faces were something to be afraid of. He had to meet them face to face and take it on the cheek just because he stood up for what God said was right.

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    And he believed that God was right. And that’s. Why he took it and if we prepared young people and brothers and sisters to stand up and to. Speak what we know is right, not arrogantly. There will inevitably be ridicule. Inevitably be ridicule. As Jesus said, if the world hates you, you know that it hated. Me before it hated you if.

54. 29:38

    You were of the world. The world would love you. But because you’re not of the world. And because. I have chosen you, he said. The world hates you, and we feel that at times, don’t we? When we’ve got the courage to say what we think, we feel like Jeremiah. Perhaps not the intensity, but we feel it. Perhaps we.

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    Ought to feel. The intensity of it a little more. But we ought never. Young people to be afraid of their faces, of the faces of your school mates or those at work never be afraid of. What they think. It’s very real these days, parents in schools, our young people face a very real challenge, a very real challenge amongst a generation that I would call a moral. They have no morals in general.

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    There are many growing up, coming into their teens these days who would not have really heard anything about biblical morality at all. And our young people are standing against that. Stand up and say what’s right. And don’t be afraid of their faces, because God is true. He is alive and He is. Still working.

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    And Jeremiah had to hang on that. He had to believe with all his might and keep on reminding himself and go back to the promises and remember. What God had said to him. And for 19 years, he went on and on trying to turn that nation. And in the 31st year. Of Josiah when Jeremiah was in his 30s things.

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    Took a dramatic turn. Judah was plunged into war overnight, and Josiah. Foolishly meddled in a conflict. Of the superpowers and was Lot and was shot and killed, and overnight the face of the nation changed. The facade was lifted instantly, the true character of the people were revealed, and there began A downward run that gained momentum from that time until Nebuchadnezzar finally.

59. 32:13

    Put the knife through the heart of Judah and stopped its beating heart. But Jeremiah, above all of Josiah’s companions, felt that loss more keenly than anyone else. For 19 years, he’d laboured alongside that man from their teens. They had worked. Together they. ‘D traversed the lengths, length and breadth of the land together to try and turn the people and cleanse it from idols.

60. 32:44

    They’d appealed to the people’s hearts. All to no avail and now. Jeremiah’s inspiration, Jeremiah’s inspiration and the nation’s inspiration has gone. And he must have sat down and wept and wept. Why did God take him at this critical stage? Let’s come back to Second Chronicles. Just feel for this man who had very few companions, who’d tried so earnestly for so long and thought that.

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    In the end that they. Might be getting there. They might be getting somewhere. But in Second of Chronicles chapter 35 and in verse 24, his servants, that is, Josiah’s servants, therefore took him out of the chariot, Second of Chronicles 3524, and put him in the second chariot that he had. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died.

62. 33:48

    And they buried him in one of the sepulchres of his father’s. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for for Josiah. Isn’t that interesting? The people really knew he was a man of character and. All the city and all Judah mourned for Josiah and Jeremiah. Verse 25 lamented for Josiah. And the word is different to mourned.

63. 34:16

    It really has the idea of writing a song and and repeating it over and over again. He lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and wing singing women spake of Josiah and their lamentation to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel, and behold. They’re written in the lamentations. That lamentation of that day is likened to the one when Judah and Israel will laments in grief when they realise they’ve slain the Messiah in the time that he has been revealed. Jeremiah’s grief was intense indeed. Let’s come to Lamentations chapter 4. Lamentations was actually written at the end of Jeremiah’s life, but in Lamentations chapter. Four, we find what he really thought of this man and just think of this in the circumstances that he was in. Just think about how Jeremiah thought of Josiah verse 20. The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh was taken in their pits.

64. 35:33

    Of whom we said, under his shadow, we shall live. Among the nations what? Tragic words. What? Pathos there is there, brethren and sisters, the breath of our nostrils. This man, to Jeremiah, was the life of the nation. He was the air that they breathed. And when the air was gone, the nation was dead.

65. 36:01

    And he knew it. He knew there was no hope, no hope for his people anymore. And he’s still alive. He’s still got Yahweh’s Commission to. Speak to the people. To a rotting pulse because there’s no air left in it. That’s how Jeremiah saw that nation, and he saw him as the great protector under.

66. 36:24

    His shadow we shall live. Among the the nations now in Jeremiah’s mind, brother and sister Josiah was almost to the status of God. He was the breath and the shadow that covered the nation and kept them alive. To whom could he now turn? He was his closest companion, the only one in the nation who really understood the.

67. 36:51

    Depth of his soul. But as if that wasn’t enough. Brethren, sisters and young people, if that tragedy in his life wasn’t enough for him to get over on Jeremiah, from that day came the brunt. Of an intense. Campaign of hatred and venom that never ever never all of his rest of his life. You see, while Geron, while Josiah was alive, the opposition was restricted to threats and verbal abuse. But now Josiah’s arm restraining arm was gone. Out came all the barbs in full force the protection. Now being gone, there was fury unleashed against anyone who wanted to speak in Yahweh’s name. And for 18 years, unrighteousness had been suppressed, boiling in the midst of the nation. And on the day that Josiah.

68. 37:46

    Was buried and out of the way and morning stopped. It flared like a Bush fire. All through the nation and now Jeremiah and the other prophets. Were in grave physical danger every day of their life. Their lives. Hung in a balance. There was fear and uncertainty, and it happened overnight when his mourning for his beloved friend. But he didn’t stop speaking.

69. 38:09

    He rose up early and. Spoke to them we find recorded in his prophecy. Oh, but there’s a desperation that comes to his voice. You have a look at chapter 18 of Jeremiah, chapter 18, then verse 18, then they said Jeremiah 18 and verse 18. Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah, for the law shall not.

70. 38:36

    Perish from the. Priest, nor the counsel from the wise, as Jeremiah is saying, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us smite him Margin. For the tongue, because of what he’s saying. And let us not give heed to his words.

71. 38:56

    And Jeremiah cries out, Give heed unto me, O Yahweh, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have digged a pit for my soul? Remember. That I stood for thee to speak. Good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.

72. 39:20

    Was no good answering the people and he turns to Yahweh. He’d only been speaking for their good. He was only concerned about saving his brethren, and this is what happened and it becomes a magnificent type of the sufferings of Christ when those. He came to save, turned all the venom of their hatred on him, and the pressure mounted.

73. 39:50

    Even further. And got more vicious. Now we may not experience. The physical persecution that Jeremiah underwent but at times the circumstances of our lives are just as perplexing as the circumstances that Jeremiah found himself in. When tragedy strikes, when pressures that we can’t cope with are brought upon us, often for. No reason of our own.

74. 40:23

    Sometimes the pressures of life are caused by our own folly or our own sinfulness, but not in Jeremiah’s time. And when trouble strikes in our lives, sometimes, brethren and sisters, it’s not deserved, it’s brought. By the hand of Yahweh, turn back a few pages to Chapter 15. Chapter 15. And at verse 15, O Yahweh, he says, thou knowest Remember Me, and visit me, and avenge me, of revenge me of my persecutors, and take me not away in thy long-suffering, and know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke. And here’s those words we read earlier, for thy words were founded.

75. 41:12

    I did eat them, and it was the rejoy and rejoicing of my heart. Verse 17 And I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced. I sat alone because of thy hand, for thou hast. Me. With indignation, because he’d taken and rejoiced at the word of Yahweh, God had made him sit alone.

76. 41:36

    Verse 18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Will thou be altogether unto me as a lion, as waters that fail? Oh, look at the desperation there. He’s struggling to understand the severity of all that’s happening in his life, and he’s striving to understand pleading with Yahweh. He now had no one else to whom he could turn. And he says, Therefore thus all Yahweh answers him in verse 19. Therefore thus saith Yahweh, if thou return, then I will bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me. And if thou take forth the precious from the vial, thou shalt be as my mouth.

77. 42:13

    Let them return unto thee, but return not unto them, and I’ll make thee as a fenced brazen wool. Remember those words and they shall. Fight against thee, but they shall not prevail, for I am with thee to deliver thee. And so the original. Commission that he was given is reiterated by God and he says, Jeremiah, yes, I know all that. I’ve seen it all.

78. 42:35

    I’ve seen it all, Jeremiah. But not just yet. Just. Keep on telling them, Jeremiah, the time for the end is not yet, and as Brother Robert Roberts once said, we are being prepared under the hand of Yahweh, day by day, by evil and delay, and Jeremiah felt both of. Us and felt the influences of an evil generation.

79. 43:07

    That. Pressed hard. And the delay at Yahweh acting and moving to alleviate that suffering. Why? Did he let it keep on going? Let’s turn over to chapter 20,

80. 43:22

    verse one. This is in the days of Jehoiakim, now Pasha, the son of IMA, the priest who was the chief governor of the House of Yahweh. How he got to be where he. Did no one knows heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things, then Pasha. Scourged. The word should be. Jeremiah the prophet and put him in a dungeon not stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin Jeremiah experienced.

81. 43:57

    More. Than just a little verbal abuse. And in verse 7, he cries out, trying to understand. What’s happening to him? Oh Yahweh, he does deceive me, and I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I and has prevailed. I am in derision daily, and everyone mocketh me. Oh, what an amazing verse that is, brethren and sisters. Going through these intense trials, Jeremiah trying to come to grips with all that God is doing in his life. But what a recognition it is when he says. Yahweh though it’s.

82. 44:31

    Stronger than me, he knew. That he had been convinced to go into the work of Yahweh because he knew it was right and Yahweh had convinced him, as the word Deceived really means persuaded. Yahweh had persuaded him, and he now realized that Yahweh really was greater than him because he had been persuaded.

83. 44:49

    To go into that work and now he was there and had to continue and the pressure never let up. Daily. Did you notice verse 7 daily it’s repeated in verse 8. He was on derision daily under the people. Everybody not mocks him. You know, words are difficult to take, aren’t they? And it’s it’s only natural for us to be accepted by others. But every day, every day he was in derision. People never ever left him alone. They cried verse 8 violence and spoil and took it out on. Him.

84. 45:25

    And he knew how to stop it. Henry had to stop that persecution. All he had to do was shut his mouth. Verse 9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, but his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and and I was. Weary for holding it in and I could not. But he had to tell.

85. 45:54

    He couldn’t hold it in. He couldn’t prevent. The word of Yahweh coming out of him it had. Convicted him and youth and he had. To go forward, oh, what a tremendous lesson there is in that. Now, sometimes we do tend to hold back, don’t we? Brothers and sisters. Because of the reactions that we might get.

86. 46:11

    Or what other? People might think of us. I wonder how many of us in our. Workplaces or our schools, our associates really do know. What we think and what we are really. Like or what we would like them to think we really are like. Now sometimes they know we’re different but don’t know why. Well, tell them why.

87. 46:35

    Jeremiah couldn’t hold it in. He didn’t do it arrogantly. There was a fire burning in his. Well, tell them why. Jeremiah couldn’t hold it in. He didn’t do it arrogantly. There was a fire. Burning in his bones, he knew God’s word was right and true. It was the only thing that could save anyone. And we, above all people in the face of the earth, have a knowledge that can save people eternally, and we hold it in. Where’s?

88. 47:09

    Jeremiah’s spirit, whosoever said Christ. Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, think about that in this adulterous and sinful generation, said Jesus of him. Also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his angels. If in a sinful and adulterous generation, we cannot say what’s right, Christ. Will have none of us.

89. 47:42

    The truth’s not just ideas on paper. It’s not just words, brethren, assistance. It’s daily living. It’s a reality and people. Must see it. Not only in our lives, but hear it from our mouths. What a remarkable man we find here in verse 10. For I heard the defaming of many fear on every side. Reports say they and I were.

90. 48:04

    We will report it. All my familiars watched me for my halting saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we will take our vengeance on him. But. Yahweh is with me as a mighty and terrible. I’m not the spirit of this man. Therefore my persecutor shall stumble, and they shall not prevail. They shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall. Not.

91. 48:28

    Prosper. Their everlasting confusion shall never be. Forgotten. What an amazing individual he was. And amidst the the hatred and the personal hurt. His mind focuses back on the promises of Yahweh. And he sees. Beyond the the faces of these men, he’s not afraid of them anymore. He sees to the end. He sees.

92. 48:50

    Yahweh as a mighty and strong arm who’s more powerful than all those who were around him. In fact, his mind goes back. Did you notice? In those words, Did you notice? His own references to the words that were spoken to him 20 years before by Yahweh. Now here’s another key. We’ve seen it already in the life of Joseph, something embedded very firmly in youth. Yahweh’s ways in His principles and His promises can be a tremendous support to enable US against all odds to hold on. See, just hold your hand down.

93. 49:38

    Go back to chapter 1 and verse 19. Notice the similarity with those words we just read. He said they shall fight against thee. They shall. Not prevail, for I am with thee, saith Yahweh, to deliver thee. And over here in when he speaks to God in verse 11 of chapter 20, he recognizes Yahweh as a as a mighty and terrible one. And they shall not prevail.

94. 50:11

    He says, when did that come but from his original promise that God had given him. And they shall be greatly ashamed, and they shall not be forgotten. His mind went back to the promise that he’d been given. And rehearsed that. Often, he’d thought about it every day. And it was necessary. For him to do that, and that’s what.

95. 50:30

    Faith is all about. It’s that kind of faith, young people, that God is looking for and it’s impossible to please him without it, to believe against all on what he has said.

96. 50:50

    But James, when writing to the believers in the 1st century said this. He said, Take my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patient endurance. Take, my brethren, the. Prophets who’ve spoken in my name, and who better could be chosen but Jeremiah?

97. 51:20

    As an example of suffering. Affliction and of patient endurance. And when we get to. The end of Jeremiah’s life we. Want to go there at the moment to Lamentations Chapter 3. He’s not young now, he’s an old man, but he looks back. And let’s. Take this man as an example as James says verse one.

98. 51:56

    Of Lamentations Chapter 3. I am the man that hath seen affliction. By the rod of his wrath He led me. He He hath led me, and brought me Into Darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is He turned. He turns His hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath He made old. He hath broken my bones.

99. 52:17

    Who’s the He? None other but Yahweh. But he realizes that Yahweh. It’s all Yahweh’s doing. It didn’t matter what men did to him, God was doing something in his life. He has builded against me. He’s compassed me with gall. He’s set me in a dark place. He’s hedged me about when I cry. Shuts out my prayer.

100. 52:39

     This is how he felt all through his life. He thought that God had. Put a lion in his path and turned him away, and bent his arrow against him, and caused. Him to to fall and stumble. All through his life read those words. It’s a terrible description of how he felt. At various times in his life.

101. 52:57

     But come down to verse 20 and he says, My soul hath, hath them. Still in remembrance and is bowed down in me as the word humbled there means is bowed down as he thinks about. All the all the circumstances. Of life that have rolled. Across him. But here’s the true Jeremiah in verse 21. This, he says, I recall to mind, and therefore have I hope. Of Yahweh’s mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not.

102. 53:29

     They are new. Every morning, great. Is thy faithfulness Yahweh is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in. Him. What a tremendous spirit, though he felt like all the verses up to verse 20 say. Yet he turns his mind and and saw through all of that the reason why God was doing.

103. 53:53

     And there’s a. Key to his survival through very. Trying and difficult circumstances because he recalled. To mind things that he had learned in youth, that’s. What? He recalled. To mind the ways and the character of Yahweh, the purpose of Yahweh. And he’d seen it in a man, Josiah, and he’d seen it in some faithful brothers and ancestors and listen to the words. And it had lodged there.

104. 54:17

     And he thought about it, and the power of faith grew and enabled him to endure a life of absolute tragedy and agony. There was hardly a moment of rejoicing unless he was rejoicing in the purpose of God. But still it begs the question, why? Why did? God do it to him. Why did God allow all that to happen to one man? Why not share that tragedy between others? Why?

105. 54:58

     Why? It’s a question that we all ask in life, young or old. Young people, if you haven’t asked that question, the days are coming when you will, and God will put you through the mill and you’ll feel like Jeremiah and you’ll say, my God, are you doing this? That’s exactly how he felt, exactly how he felt.

106. 55:20

     You come to Romans chapter 8. Young people learn this principle in youth. Romans chapter 8 the apostle beautifully expounds a wonderful principle that we all have to come to grips with. In verse 20 he says. For the whole. Creation was made subject to vanity, to emptiness, frustration, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creation itself. Shall also be.

107. 55:57

     Delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together. Until now, what’s he saying? That God has put this dispensational, made this dispensation in which we live because of sin? He’s made it subject to vanity and frustration in order that we might lift our eyes and have hope for something better. That’s what He’s done it for.

108. 56:32

     Brethren and sisters, it’s not to punish us. It’s not to crush us, it’s to make us hope because we see there are higher, more eternal principles involved. God is a moral creature. He’s everlasting and he wants us to lift out and say yes, God, I know this is not all the bill and end all of existence, but there is something greater and I’ll wait for it. That’s what he’s done it for.

109. 57:02

     It’s an imperfect state and we’re now going through the birth. Tangs. It’s the language of verse 22, isn’t it? For birth pangs to bring forward a new creation. Have you ever heard of a birth that wasn’t painful and agonizing? Well, this one that we’re in is too. And Jeremiah felt those pangs keenly. Look at verse 24.

110. 57:25

     For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not. Hope have you been, since it’s not hope. For what a man singeth. Why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then we we do with patience, with patient endurance. It’s the same word James used when he was telling us to look at the prophets. Oh, if there’s something coming and we have to wait. For it, we will do it with patience if we think it’s worthwhile and God wants us to lift our eyes and to look beyond the present.

111. 58:03

     Just come back to Lamentations chapter 3 and look what Jeremiah goes on to say. And look at the link. There is between that and Romans chapter 8, Jeremiah, sorry, Lamentations chapter 3. And I’d like you to keep for a moment something in a piece of paper or something in Lamentations Chapter 3, because we’re going to have a look.

112. 58:25

     At just a. Couple of other references and come back here from in the next few minutes. But verse 25 says Yahweh is good unto them that wait for him, to them that seek him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good, he says for a man, that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.

113. 58:58

     He’s come to understand at the end of his life. Though I. Believe in measure, he understood at the beginning. He’s come to understand from. Experience what God is doing. It’s good to. Wait for Yahweh. You know, make a note of this. We haven’t got time to turn to it, but in James chapter 5, the very same place that he was talking about the prophets as being an example in verse seven and eight, he makes an analogy and he says this. He says the reason that God is making us wait is the same reason that a husbandman waits for the former and the latter rain, that it might bring forth fruit. See, brothers and sisters, the father is. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

114. 59:48

     And he’s making us. Wait for the. Development of fruit in our lives, and he’s coming back. To see if that fruit is there. One day, Jeremiah came to the same conclusion that. The. Process of patient endurance in godliness develops the fruit of the Spirit. It develops character. That. Could not otherwise be developed. But it’s only remember, look what Jeremiah says here. It’s only verse 25 to the soul that seeks. Him, all those things could happen to a man in the world and it wouldn’t produce character, it would produce bitterness, but in the faithful that seeks him it will produce. Qualities and characteristics which he loves. It’s not a matter of waiting for Christ and doing our own thing, but patient endurance.

115. 1:00:43

     But you know, there’s another dimension to patient endurance. Come over to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, verse one. He says we’re. For being justified by faith, we have Prince with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we also have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope. Of the glory of God.

116. 1:01:15

     And on our baptism. That is the truth justified by faith, peace with God, access by faith into the grace in prayer, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

117. 1:01:33

     But Paul didn’t stop there. And. Not only so he says, but we glory, we rejoice in tribulations, pressures. The word means knowing that precious work, patient endurance and patient endurance works experience. Character proof of trustworthiness and experience produces hope. And the hope makes us not ashamed in the end. There’s a great process after we’re baptized that we have to go through, brethren, sisters, before we’re really truly of value to God, before we start hoping in His.

118. 1:02:19

     Mercy. And here is the reality of daily living the truth. Now that word patient endurance that was used by. James and is used here is a word that Bullinger says means. Or he defines as it’s not a passive endurance, he says, but a virtue which can transmute the harvest trial into glory because beyond the pain, it sees the gall and the pressures and troubles of life that came upon.

119. 1:02:58

     Jeremiah and that come upon us from time to time, brethren, and. Sisters can develop that same quality and that will develop character and hope. And in the day to come, we will not be ashamed because God uses the experiences of this life, the oppositions of men unjustly, very often the abuse, the circumstances of our life, the frustrations inside the ecclesia and out to produce patient endurance. And those, all of those.

120. 1:03:36

     Things are are there as an opportunity for us to develop a quality that the Father sees to be of real value. It’s a quality, brethren and sisters, that he wants, He wants and needs in the Kingdom. And there’s only one way to produce patience, and that’s give opportunity for it to be produced. You can’t learn patience by reading the Bible, young people. You can’t do it.

121. 1:04:08

     You can’t learn to love somebody by reading about it. There has to be real experience. There has to be life lived. There has to be difficulties in order for us to experience. Those things, and God knows it. Count it all joy, said James, when he’d fall into divers trials. Knowing this, knowing this, that the trying of your faith is not out to destroy us, but works patient endurance.

122. 1:04:40

     And he says, but let it have its work. Don’t turn bitter. Let patient endurance work in your life. Shut your mouth when brethren accuse you falsely when the kids at school say things against you, and bless being God. Take it on the cheek. Let patient endurance work that G may be complete and entire, wanting nothing. God is not doing it to us to crush us to pieces. He’s not doing it because He hates us. It’s because He wants us in the Kingdom. And he’ll give us circumstances in order that we might be able to demonstrate divine qualities and not fleshly qualities. Robert Roberts once said that man is made. Its constitution is such that he cannot ever be complete without experience.

123. 1:05:48

     And one of the critical components of experience is trouble. God has not offered young people to make a star-studded path to the Kingdom. The road is the road that Jeremiah went to the faithful. That’s the path. You see, a man without experience is a man without patience. It’s a man. Who’s brought no fruit to the glory of God, of no use to God, Revelation says.

124. 1:06:34

     They that have. Come out of great tribulation, and have watched their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Are those that form the part of the regime, those that have come out of great pressures that have? Learnt not only. The theory of the truth. But the daily endurance in well doing. Life is a preparation.

125. 1:06:59

     Young people learn it in youth. Life is a preparation. It’s not an end in itself. It’s a preparation for something greater. And the trials the the tribulations that Jeremiah underwent are just typical. Of God’s. Way in preparation, but come back. To lamentation because Jeremiah didn’t stop. There. He says in verse 27, having just said in verse 26, It’s good for a man that he should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh, he says. It is good.

126. 1:07:42

     For a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. That’s our thing for the series of stakes. What’s a yoke? Well, just consider the the analogy of oxen or animals yoked together. Think about this. What the yoke was meant for was to channel the energy and the action of that animal, of those two animals that were yoked together for some useful.

127. 1:08:18

     Purpose for their master, so that fruit might come to the master. Now isn’t that absolutely remarkable because it was meant to remove the self will? And the independence of the animal. Running hit her and thither, wasting energy. It was meant to constrain the animal and to teach it to cooperate with the master, and if it didn’t cooperate in the master. In bringing fruit to the master, it would rub so much that it would.

128. 1:08:54

     Eventually cooperate and the natural is the basis of the spiritual. And Jeremiah says it’s good for a man to bear the yoke. In his youth and you know. Jesus took up. That analogy from here he took up. Jeremiah’s words. In Matthew, hold your hand in in lamentations and go to Matthew Chapter 11. They’re words that we all know and probably can cite many of us in Matthew Chapter 11, but there is no question that Jesus is got Jeremiah in mine here and he says in verse 28, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and and I will give you rest.

129. 1:09:38

     Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lonely in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is life. We can read straight across that and it all sounds a very nice nice. Words, doesn’t it? But let’s notice a few things in verse 28, he says take my yoke upon you.

130. 1:10:01

     That means it’s voluntary. We have to decide to take it, young people, And notice secondly that it’s his yoke. He’s not asking us to take on something on our necks that he hasn’t got on his. And in fact, the analogy is that we are yoking ourselves with Christ. That’s the analogy. He’s saying He’s saying take on my yoke with me. So we’re yoking.

131. 1:10:30

     Ourselves. And there’s an invitation for us to yoke ourselves with this. And he says you yoked yourself with me, and you will find rest. What a conundrum. What an amazing yoke that is. Yokes always hurt, they always rubbed while the animal got used to them. But Jesus says you take my yoke upon you and you’ll find rest.

132. 1:10:53

     Whoever heard of a yoke giving rest? All it did was brought more work, more pain and more suffering. But this yoke will bring rest. This is something. Unique. It’s worth finding out something about. And you know what? Do you know where Jesus picked those words up for when you? Look at the margin.

133. 1:11:15

     Jeremiah, chapter 6. There’s no doubt he’s got it in mind. Hold your hand. You got three hands. Hold your hand in Matthew. You can drop Lamentations if you like, and go back to Jeremiah chapter 6 just for a moment. Jeremiah. Chapter 6. Because Jesus quotes Jeremiah Chapter 6. In those words. Now Jeremiah chapter 6 is a very interesting context.

134. 1:11:44

     Verse 16 are the words that Jesus quotes. And there we read. Thus saith Yahweh, stand ye in the ways, and see and ask for the old paths. Where is the good? Way and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. There’s the words that Jesus. Quoted, and he shall find rest for your souls.

135. 1:12:03

     But matter. But Jesus didn’t didn’t didn’t cite the first part of Jeremiah, and whenever he cites just part of a. Verse in the middle of it. We’ve got to ask ourselves why. Did. He not, it seems that Jesus put in place of seek out the old paths and walk in the good way. He put, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. So taking Christ’s yoke on us in Jesus terms is exactly the equivalent of what Jeremiah was saying, to look out for the old path, the good paths, and to walk therein. Well, what was people doing in Jeremiah’s day? You have a look.

136. 1:12:49

     At Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse 13 this. Is what they were. Doing when God said those words from the least of them, under the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness. From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. Why are you given to covetousness and. Why are you out? Dealing falsely if. It’s not for your own gain.

137. 1:13:10

     And that’s all Jeremiah’s society we’re out for. To get what they wanted for themselves, they thought of #1 and nothing else. And then Jeremiah said. Look, think of the old way, walk in the good old paths and you’ll find rest to your souls. And they said at the end of verse 16, we will not walk therein.

138. 1:13:33

     We’re going to walk where we want to walk and we won’t listen to you. What an amazing thing you come back to to Matthew Chapter 11. And Jesus quotes the whole context of Jeremiah here in these words, because Jesus instead of saying seek out the old paths and walk in them, he says, You take my yoke upon you and learn from, not of, from me.

139. 1:14:06

     And now the old path and the good way and how to walk it are embodied in a man. Jesus was not going to say, look, take the old path and walk in it. He said, Come here, yoke yourself alongside me and learn from me. I’ll show you in my life what it means to walk the good path and the old.

140. 1:14:33

     Way. And what was the good path and the old way? It was exactly the opposite of what they were doing in Jeremiah’s day. All they were possibly doing in Jeremiah’s day was seeking their own interests from the highest in the land to the very bottom of society. They were doing nothing else out for self. Self #1 all the time.

141. 1:14:57

     And you know what we’re going to learn if we yoke ourselves to Christ? Read His words. You yoke yourself to me and learn from me. For He says, I am meek. And lowly of heart.

142. 1:15:17

     And that’s the good way seen in a man’s life. The hardest lesson that we’ll ever have to. Learn in life to empty ourselves of. Self-interest because God can’t work in us while we are enthroned. In our own eyes, meekness and. Lowliness are the exact opposite of seeking self, and the very purpose of a yoke was to constrain the self-interest of the animal, to follow the master’s way, to give up self, and to deny. Self, I’d like you to come to Isaiah. Chapter 57.

143. 1:16:15

     Because in one verse here. Isaiah puts his finger on the issue at stake. It’s the fundamental issue of our lives, brethren and sisters and young people. And I would like to talk to young people more particularly at the moment, because it’s in the context of that verse that we’re talking about the yoke and on Isaiah.

144. 1:16:41

     Chapter 53. Sorry, 57 and verse 15. Verse 15 of Isaiah 57. For thus sits behind lofty one that inhabit eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell with the High and Holy in the High and Holy place with him. Also, that is of a contrite and humble spirit. God can work with that spirit.

145. 1:17:12

     He can’t work. With anything else and see what the verse goes on to say. To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones God. Can do something with individuals, young people, especially in their youth. Who are prepared? To forget themselves. And that was Jeremiah Let. This mind be in you, said Paul. When he wrote to the Philippians, he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a slave, and humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Because self wasn’t there to compete. God highly exalted him and gave him a name above every other name.

146. 1:18:10

     Because he emptied himself, God could manifest himself in him. And Jesus said, yoke yourself with me. Learn from me what it means to be lowly and meek.

147. 1:18:32

     How do we do it? We’ve got to know what he’s like. Brethren and sisters and young people, we’ve got to consider the Lord’s life.

148. 1:18:43

     If we don’t give. Attention during our life to the life of our Lord that receives attention in four books of the Bible specifically, and allusions all over Scripture. We do ourselves a great disservice because therein we see his selflessness and his devotion to others and to the Father demonstrated in a life. That we yoked together and every day, young people, we’ve got to yoke ourselves to him and to remove that self will, that self-expression.

149. 1:19:19

     And Jeremiah bore that yoke, and it wasn’t easy. They’re the next. 2 verses after Lamentations chapter 23, verse 27 from the RSV. The RSV captures the poetry of those words. It’s good. For a man. That he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when he’s laid it on him. That’s what the yoke’s going to do at times, young people. Let him put his mouth in the dust. It may be there may be hope.

150. 1:20:03

     Out of that. Let him give him his cheeks to the smite and be filled with insults. And remember that Yahweh will not cast off forever, but though because grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love. Yahweh is not out to crush us, but it may mean hardship and pain and it’s good to bear it in youth. Why is it good to bear in youth?

151. 1:20:33

     Any conclusion? I want to give you 4 in. There are many, many others and no doubt through the several studies that we’ve had already, you can start to see some of the reasons why God called individuals in youth. But let me give you just four summary reasons why it’s good to bear that yoke in youth. Because firstly, young people, youth is the most productive and energetic time of life.

152. 1:21:01

     It’s a time of independence of of great enthusiasm and strength that you’ll have at no other time of your life. Potentially, I say the most productive time, but do you know in youth most of the energy and most of the strength of most of the world’s youth is totally wasted? What a tragedy that is. But the yoke will channel that energy and direct it to great profits, to bringing fruit to the glory of the Father. It’s good to bear the yoke in youth where the strength and vitality where something can be achieved and quickly. Don’t waste your youth young people while you still have it. Instead of lazing around till 10:30 on a Saturday morning, get up and do 2 hours of Bible study or go and see some sister and help her in the garden.

153. 1:21:58

     Don’t spend your Saturday tinkering around with your car trying to do this little thing or that. Look for somebody you can do something for. Learn to bear the yoke of meekness and lowliness, crushing self-interest in youth. It’s the hardest thing. Youth fills the freedom, Freedom of independence of self, will of the turn of nation. And God says it’s the best time to yoke it. The best time to yoke it.

154. 1:22:38

     Instead of thinking of self, think of others. Instead of just thinking of your own enjoyment. After supper, have you ever thought that there’s? People picking things up and doing things and carrying things and and doing all manner of things and often it’s older people. Stop to watch that, young people. When you’re at a fraternal, you watch. And see who sweeps the floor and who puts the tables away. You watch in.

155. 1:23:02

     Fact, I say don’t watch you put them away #2 youth is the most mouldable and responsive time of life. You’ve taken a great. Bough of A. Tree that’s been there for 20 years, twig that’s young and fresh and virile. Which can you train? If you try hard enough for long enough, you might change the position of that bow. But that little twig can be bent and moved into any direction the master wants any direction, without great pain and without great undue stress.

156. 1:23:43

     You know, youth is the time when life’s patterns and habits and attitudes are being formed. Set your direction. That’s the lesson young people in life. Make the daily readings. Daily readings. Make prayer a daily. Necessity. Make time for meditation. You’ll never have as much time as you have in your youth. And look outside, learn of me, said Jesus. Learn to support, to look outside your own life, to talk to older ones, to help support other younger ones. It’s much, much more difficult in aged, older life to change entrenched ways and attitudes.

157. 1:24:21

     It’s an enormous blessing, on the other hand, to bear that yoke in youth and thank God for it. Young people don’t. Ever despise it? The apostle Peter said, Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Accept his way when it comes however it comes, as Jeremiah did.

158. 1:24:48

     But you know, there’s a negative side to all that the yoke constrains. Prevents youthful lusts, It constrains the flesh and prevents the formation of deep mental. Paths that are caused by sin, as we saw in in Samson this afternoon. You know, bad habits formed in youth are almost impossible. Not impossible, but very, very difficult to break.

159. 1:25:15

     That’s utter folly for anyone to give advice to any young. People to try the world and try the truth. And make up your mind. That is never counselled in Scripture. It’s absolute folly. The Scripture says bear it in youth. The yoke before the exposure and involvement in sin and evil has scarred the mind and cut pathways that you’ll never be able to get out. You know Samson found himself in that situation. He was scarred.

160. 1:25:46

     For life by some of his experiences. And those who’ve come into the truth in later life can testify there are things that come back in their minds that they don’t want to be there, and they come back. Because of their previous. Experience youth is the best time to constrain the flesh before sinners hardened paths and patterns in your in your thinking and in youth reason number. Three, your minds are much more alert. Much more able to quickly comprehend, to understand. Don’t sell that to the world.

161. 1:26:19

     Don’t sell it to the boss. Give it to God. And if you’re doing tertiary studies or studies at school, learn to plan your time. Don’t let life slip through your fingers. There’s a lot of young people that get into their 20s and 30s and they’ve done nothing with their life. They know nothing about the word of God. It should never be so.

162. 1:26:43

     It should never be so young people, you know, if you learnt just one verse of the Bible a day, just one, just one little verse of the Bible every. Day by the end of the year. You would know off by heart all of the Psalms from Psalm 1 to Psalm 28 in one year, one verse a day.

163. 1:27:08

     We’re a generation that’s mentally lazy. Use your time while you’ve got it. And reason number. 4 is that the productiveness for God in later years will be significantly enhanced if you bear the yoke in you. If you’re still fighting with the the very basic issues of self will and the importance of your own power and prestige, and you’re still thinking of yourself at 60 or 70. You’re not much use to God, but a man that has learned in youth to bear that yoke and to give his life and to commit himself despite the pain, despite the cost. We will be of enormous use to God and. That above all is the reason we find in Scripture why God above all is the reason we find in Scripture why God called men like Jeremiah, Josiah, Joseph, Sampson, Timothy, Paul, you name them in youth.

164. 1:28:16

     He didn’t use them immediately. But he prepared them for a great and marvellous work amongst his people, and 1 Yet in the future that is even more marvellous. We will be more productive for God in the end if we give our lives in youth. Yeah, we may be tempted to think that Jeremiah’s life was unproductive, that he didn’t really achieve anything.

165. 1:28:42

     After 40 years, the whole nation was still wayward, even though he’d faithfully borne that. Yoke all his days. Know what he did? He had a profound effect upon some young people and during his life. Daniel Hananiah Azariah Mishael went into captivity at 17. They’d only known Jeremiah for the 1st 17 years of their life and they went into captivity and later.

166. 1:29:19

     Ezekiel and Mordecai and others went into captivity, into Babylon, and all of those young teenagers were inspired by Josiah and more particularly I believe, by Jeremiah, because they got into Babylon and they had a vision in Babylon that was inspired by Jeremiah because Daniel tells us that they did. And they had an example of patience, endurance in well doing because they’ve seen those men in action in their teens and they in turn inspired others in Babylon and 70.

167. 1:29:52

     Years later. 50,000 Jews having faith in what Jeremiah said, left Babylon and went back and re established a nation. What an inspiring testimony that is to Jeremiah’s life and his body achieved nothing. 50,000 people uprooted their lives and went back to build the temple against great opposition and one day that man will be raised to do a great work again.

168. 1:30:25

     But this time, not as an oppressed, tearful man, but having come through all the tribulations of life and learned the value of patient endurance, he will rejoice for evermore with the greater who’s gone before.

169. 1:30:50

     What have we seen? The Word of God must be our delight daily. Don’t be afraid of their faces. Pressure and tragedy, whatever circumstances come upon us and trouble are used by God to develop character of the Saints and it’s our job to wait to wait patiently. While God’s work is done. And to bear that.

170. 1:31:18

     Yoke, yoke, yoke with meekness and humility, looking forward to redemption and the rest that will come. And young people. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. Youth is the best time to serve God.