In Psalms 110, reading the first four verses, I want to title this message this evening, title it, The Due of Youth, and then add the word sons on that. Mother's Day on Sunday night, I title it, The Due of Youth, and we use the word daughters. Now, I've been going over some things this evening, a few quotes here if I have time to use them. I was telling Sister John I felt a little frustrated. I got too much material. And I was gonna break the message up like we did before. I think I'm gonna go through the first part of it quick. But we'll see, let's just get into it. Notice with me as we read these first few verses here in Psalms 110. I'm beginning in verse one, and he said, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning thou hast the due of youth. The Lord has sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Heavenly Father, we do ask tonight for Thy blessings upon the reading of Thy precious Word. And as we come to this subject tonight, to finish up our series from this morning, we pray, Lord, for Thy will to be done, which in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. Our text is really from verse 3. I want to focus in on this, and I did bring some notes with me this evening to keep me on track. I preach without them sometimes, but I preach most of the time with some, and I seem to be using a little more in the last year or so. But notice with me as we come here and this psalm, and let me just say this as we get started, this is a messianic psalm. And we're going to talk about sons tonight. And we're going to see in the Scripture that sons are special in the eyes of our Creator. We're going to see that as we turn to Psalms 144 in a little bit, as we did Mother's Day and we went to that psalm and looked at daughters. And they're referred to in that Psalm, Psalms 144, as plants grown up in their youth. That is, they're to be strong, moral, straight, and to love God's Word. Now this psalm, the reason I'm coming here and doing this again, and I'm going to do it more brief this time than we did back in May, but I want you to notice that as we come to verse 3, I want to read this, but just to lay a foundation, this psalm is messianic and it's been called by many the crown of psalms. It's one of the most comprehensive prophecies of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the reason I read to verse 4. The whole psalm is about him, but in verse 4 he's referred to as a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And it's the most quoted psalm in the New Testament in reference to Christ. And in addition to verse 1, it is the most quoted verse of the psalms in the New Testament. Verse 1 is quoted and alluded to in the New Testament, some believe about 25 times. And verse 1 is directly quoted in the New Testament 7 times. And then verse 4, the one that mentions Christ being the priest after the order of Melchizedek, this verse dominates three chapters in the book of Hebrews 5, 6, and 7. So the author is David, he receives this revelation from heaven, speaks of the coming Messiah, and really Christ is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. We know that for sure by reading the Old and New Testament. Now real quickly, verse 1 is a conversation between two persons of the Godhead. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool. In verse 2, we see Messiah's reign over his kingdom in the midst of his enemies. In verse 3, we're going to read in just a moment, we see here this speaks of a people who is willing to follow Christ, referring to the church. In verse 4 speaks of His eternal priesthood, again after the order of Melchizedek. In verse 5 it speaks of the conquest of Messiah. In verse 6, it speaks of the fact that he shall judge among the heathen. And in verse 7, he shall drink of the brook. In other words, this picture is a picture of being refreshed and revived and not being weary or tired. Now let us come to verse three. And again, I'm gonna do this quickly so we can get into actually talking about sons. But the reason I turned here is what I did Mother's Day is I wanted you to see what all that Christ accomplished in his youth. We're to remember our creator in the days of our youth. And so Christ accomplished a lot in his youth. And so I gave the outlines, I should say, the due of Christ's youth. That's our first point. And that was our first point back in Mother's Day. And the second point this evening is going to be the due of our youth, and that's when we're going to really talk about sons or young men. But let's read through this and notice in verse 3, In Christ's youth, he submitted himself to the Father's will. And he accomplished eternal redemption for all of humanity. Now think about that. In his youth, these things happened. So he said in verse 3, he says, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, thou hast the due of youth. That is our title. Now, he talks about, in verse 3, it says, thy people. It's referring to the church of the firstborn, as in Hebrews 12 and in verse 23. And we find here the beauty, the beauties of holiness that is mentioned also here in this passage. And we find that as we come to the scriptures, Psalms 29.2 and other passages, speaks of the dawn of the glorious day when Christ shall reign. And so a holy beauty is what we have here. The Bible speaks of holiness in terms of beauty. Let us never forget that. In contrast to the ugliness of sin. And again, we see that worship is associated with holiness. So he says in verse 3, "...thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth." We have here the womb of the morning, the dew of thy youth. Again, this is speaking of Christ in the strength and power of His youth. And He came forth in His youth to conquer and to lead His people to victory. And I just think this is a good foundation when we think about the young people and trying to encourage them to serve the Lord, Jesus Christ in this psalm is depicted in his eternal youth, now at the right hand of the Father in verse 1, and after finishing his earthly tasks, Think about this, at age 33, he's now seated at the right hand of the Father after accomplishing redemption for all of humanity. That's amazing, isn't it? Now, the word do, I made mention of this and focus in on this. We looked at a few verses back in May, but I'll just give them to you. Psalms 133, verse 3. and also in Hosea 14, verse 4 and 5. He says here in this passage, he speaks of the womb of the morning, the birth of the morning, and he says, and thou hast the dew of thy youth. In other words, Christ in His youth. He died in His youth. He accomplished redemption in His youth. But the word dew in the morning In other words, after a long night, dew is a constant emblem of life. It speaks of that which is refreshing. It speaks of that which is gentle, that which is heavenly, that which is quickening. In other words, that which gives life to the grass, the plants, the flowers, etc. And so this is speaking of Christ's youth. And when we speak of our youth, we could say the same thing. We have the strength and the vitality and things of that nature in our youth. We see that starting to fade as we get older. It doesn't mean we can't serve God in our old age, we just don't have the same vitality and strength. Now, I'm going to mention to you some verses here dealing with the subject of youth. One of those I just gave is Ecclesiastes 12.1, and I'm not going to turn and read that, but the youth are to remember their Creator while they're young and not wait until they're old and not waste their life. Also in Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verses 9 and 10, I mentioned that or read it last Sunday night and dealing with old age or growing older. And so when he talks about here, the due of youth, in other words, this is showing that youth is the time of abounding activity. And if we use it for Christ's sake, think about what can be accomplished. It's the time to accomplish something for the Lord. It's not the time to waste our life on foolishness. And it is the prime of life, energy, productivity, purpose. In other words, to be focused on things of God. Because again, as we studied last Sunday night, that will change as each year goes by. Now let's read this one more time before we turn away. I'm gonna read verse three. And I wanna remind you of just a few other things, and then we're gonna turn to Psalms 144. We turn to Matthew 20 verse 28 in May when we studied this, and we looked at the fact that Christ came to this earth not to be served, but to serve others. And he came to bring redemption for humanity. So in 33 years, in Christ's use, he ministered, he died, he ascended back to heaven, and he still ministers today interceding for his people. Now, Christ was a perfect example in childhood. Luke 2 verse 40 through 42. He grew up Or I should put it this way, he grew, the Bible says, in wisdom and strength. And at the age of 12, he's in the temple listening to the ministers and asking questions. And at 12 years of age, he's about his father's business, his heavenly father. And also, as a young person, he submitted himself to his parents and he had favor with God and man. That's in his youth. All right, he's also our perfect example in adulthood. 1 Peter 2, verse 21 through 25. It says that he was willing to suffer for the kingdom of God, and he submitted himself completely to the Father's will. In Luke 22, 42, even in death, he said, not my will, but thy will be done. And also in Matthew 12, 18, I gave this to you the last time as well, where it says, behold my servant. We preached an entire sermon on that text, either this year or last year. And the father is saying in that passage, In Luke 12, 18, He's saying, when He said, Behold My servant, He said, Look at My Son, in whom I have chosen, My Beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased. The Father is saying this about His Son. So Jesus Christ in His youth, in Luke 4, 8, He led captivity captive. In other words, we find that's a multitude of captives. That includes us. You know, He delivered us from our sin. And in His youth, in Colossians 2.15, He spoiled principalities and powers. He made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. So that was the thing. We went a little slower the last time, but that's what we covered in our first point. The dew of youth. In other words, the dew of Christ. Now, let's talk about the due of youth speaking of sons. This morning, fathers and grandfathers, this evening, sons. Turn with me to Psalms 144. And we read this passage on Mother's Day as well on Sunday night, but we're going to focus in on sons here in our passage. I hold up a picture here of the young man, you have it, I gave you a copy of this, it's just smaller, of the young man in Ukraine. during the war, right now with Russia, that he was killed and I think there were three others, at least three others killed with him. He's in his early twenties. I've laid this picture out where I can see it and I can remember to pray for his family and pray for other Christians there. Now think about this young man here that is in heaven now. He didn't have a high-paying job. He didn't have fancy cars or expensive homes, but he was training for the ministry. He wanted to preach. He wanted to start churches in his country. He wanted to win people to the Lord in his country, and he was also feeding the hungry. and he was rescuing people from cities that was being bombed. He was not fighting, he was helping and rescuing people. And as it was mentioned in the handout I gave you last week, he gave the ultimate sacrifice. Now, has God called on each one of us to die in this way? No. Most will not die in this way, but He's called upon all young people to serve in this capacity. Doesn't have to be a preacher, minister, but to serve the Lord and to be faithful to Him. On the article that we wrote in 2007, titled, Young Men, I put on the back of this a quote by another author and he says this, he said, by the shoot we judge the tree, by the blossoms we judge the fruit, by the spring we judge the harvest, by the morning we judge the day, And by the character of the young man, we may generally judge what he will be when he grows up." And how true that that is in many cases, unless God gets a hold of their hearts. Now, let's notice here as we come to Psalms 144, and I want to read verses 12 through 15. that I want to come back and focus on verse 12. He says here, beginning in verse 12, that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. and that our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace, that our garners may be full, affording all manner of store, that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets, that our oxen may be strong to labor, that there be no breaking in or going out, that there be no complaining in our streets. Verse 15, happy is that people that is such a case, yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord. We find here the blessings of God, the happiness of God's people. But in verse 12, as we're focused tonight, we see the issue, of course, of raising sons and daughters. But here, we're going to focus in on the raising of sons. Now, verse 12, we see the concern in this text by God for the next generation. And all depends on the character of young men and women, the next generation that's coming on. Now, we mentioned the daughters on Mother's Day. Notice, I'll just briefly say this, that we find here in verse 12 that there is cornerstones in their father's house, which I said then helps bring stability to the home, to the church and society. But we have here the sons. He said in verse 12 that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. Now, when we talk about sons or young men, in this passage he's talking about that which is strong. Spiritually, that which is moral. We want our plants to grow up straight, do we not? We want young men to grow up to be leaders in society, in the church, and in the home, be leaders in their home. We want them to be overcomers, as we're going to read in a few moments. We want them to be lovers of God. That's what we pray for and desire with our children and our grandchildren as well. And I want you to turn now to Psalms 119. Psalms 119, all of you can quote this, but I want to read it while we're close by. Psalms 119. Now, I'm not going to carry you back to Proverbs because we'll be there Wednesday night again, but have you noticed how many times in Proverbs that the writer, the psalmist says, my son, listen, hearken, and so forth. You find it beginning in chapter 1, verses 7 through 11. You find it in chapter 2, and chapter 3, and chapter 4, and chapter 5, and chapter 6, and chapter 7. We're in chapter 13. And we started last week, it started out as asking a son to hearken unto the father's words. Well, notice in Psalms 119, I want you to see the only way that a son can be clean in the sight of God. There's only one way. He says in verse nine, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way. There's only one way, is there not? It's the Word of God. And it is obedience to the Word of God. There is no way that a young man can be clean before a holy and righteous God unless he is obedient to the Word of God. Turn with me to the New Testament and notice with me in 1 John. Notice in 1 John. Come to 1 John, and I want to begin reading in this chapter in verses 12 through 14. Now, there's some subjects, I don't even apologize for this, but there's subjects we keep coming back to because we find them in the context. In Proverbs, we're just... By the way, we're going to see the issue of pride here with some other sins. Guess what? In about two weeks, we'll be back on looking at pride again in Proverbs chapter 13. God just keeps repeating these things. And especially when you're doing expository type teaching, like in a book of Proverbs, we're usually doing that on Sunday night. I've gotten away from that in several months, and we'll get back to it soon. But notice as we come here, and I want to read from verses 12 through 14. I'm going to read more in this passage, but I want you to notice that the young man is mentioned here. And these verses... actually introduces three stages of growth in the Christian life and shows different members in God's family. Notice as we read these, he says, I write unto you little children. Now in the context, the Christian is called little children in verse one and in verse 18. So in Christ, let me say this before I read, in Christ, there in our text, there's three stages of our Christian growth. One is babes, children. One is youth. He uses young men here. And the other one is the full grown. person that uses the word father here, I believe. Let me see, let's just read these. He said in verse 12, I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you fathers, so that word is used, because you have known him, that is from the beginning, I write unto you young men. because you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you little children because you have known the father. I write unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you young men because you're strong and the word of God abideth in you and you have overcome the wicked one. So, in one sense, we can say that in Christ, there's stages, you know, those who have recently been saved, those who have been saved a while, those who have been saved for a number of years, we could use the word children, babes, youth, fathers, or whatever. But it's interesting that in this text, we see the reality of young men that are mentioned in the passage. And he mentions the fact that they have gotten spiritual victory. Let's look at this again before we drop down to verse 15. And keep in mind as I read verse 13 and 14 this time, keep in mind that the young men are mentioned as being strong in the Lord. They're mentioned as growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. They're mentioned as being overcomers. So verse 13 and 14, he said, I write unto you fathers because you have known him, that is from the beginning. I write unto you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. Notice that now. I write unto you little children because you have known the father. I've written unto you fathers because you have known him, that is from the beginning. I have written unto you young men, because you're strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." So we'll take this and consider the young men, literally young men in the Lord. And these young men here that would be mentioned, they have shown a true faith in their trials and testings. And the character of youth is strength. And, of course, in the text he's speaking of spiritual strength. Now, he mentions here in verse 13 and verse 14 that these young men have overcome the wicked one. The wicked one is the devil. And there's many passages that bear that out. But he also says that the word of God, I'm in verse 14 now, the latter part of verse 14, he mentions, he said to the young man, I've written unto you, you're strong. In other words, they're strong physically, a young man is usually strong, but he's speaking spiritually here that they're strong. And notice he also says, he says, and the word of God abideth in you. It abideth in you. In other words, it lives in you. It dwells in you. The Word of God shapes and directs their life. This is the secret to success. It's a secret to strength. And you can write down Ephesians 3 and in verse 17. So they have overcome the wicked one. And we find that the Word of God dwells inside of them. It's not talking about they can just quote some scripture or whatever, you know. It's talking about thriving and living and dwelling them, shaping and molding their lives. And notice back, the word overcome is used in verse 13, in the middle of the verse with the young men. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. Notice now verse 14, the latter part of the verse, and he says, I have written unto you, young men, because you're strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one. Now, we've got an entire article on young men, sermons on that, got an entire article and sermon on overcoming. And we've touched on that many times in other sermons. So what is an overcomer? The word overcome means, first of all, to conquer. The Bible says in Romans 8, 33, we're more than conquerors through Him that loved us. It has the ideal of having victory over sin. And it has the ideal of just having victory in general in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 57. But here's some synonyms. The word overcome. Basically the word overcomer in the scripture. And it's used for each one of the seven churches of Asia, Revelation 2 and 3. It's used here. It's used in Revelation 12, I believe it's verse 10 or 11. And it's used also in 1 John chapter 5 in verses 4 and 5. So what is an overcomer? An overcomer is one who truly believes in Jesus Christ. In other words, the one that has the Word of God abiding in them, the one that has the Spirit of God abiding in them. So here's some synonyms to conquer, to subdue, to be victorious, or persevere, and keep in mind perseverance is evidence of salvation, not the means of salvation. But to be an overcomer, it is that continual steadfastness on a particular course of life and belief, as in Matthew 7, verse 13 and 14. So the book of 1 John, shows the marks of true conversion. I mean, you can go to every chapter and see the marks of true conversion. I seen the mother of a young man, of course, he's in his probably late 30s or early 40s now, but I've seen the mother of a young man that I used to talk with, and he was troubled and bothered about whether he was saved or not. You've heard me tell this story, and as a matter of fact, I participated in his wedding when he had gotten married over across the bay. But anyway, he was troubled about that. And I sat down with him one day, and his pastor got very frustrated with him. And I watched him, so I threw up his hands and said, I can't help you anymore. Because he struggled with this. The good thing about it, he was struggling with it. He wasn't living in sin, he was in church and he was reading the Bible and things like that. He wasn't doing wicked things. He was bothered in his heart and I love to see that because they usually get it settled. He was very bothered. And I told him, I said, read. He was actually going to school at Pensacola College at the time and me and his pastor had taken him over there. And again, you've heard me tell this story, but we were in a small vehicle. So I just leaned up on the top of the car and just with my chin on top of the car, listening to them. And finally, the pastor looked at me and said, can you help him? I said, I believe I can. And so we talked a little bit and I said to him, I said, read 1 John over and over and over again this week as you got time between your classes. And I said, just keep reading it. It gives you the marks of true conversion. It gives you the evidence of true salvation. And within that week or so, this man settled the issue of his eternal destiny. He was a searcher. He was like Cornelius. He was wanting the truth. You don't get frustrated with that. Somebody like that, and you want to sit down with them and help them. He came to my house, and we sat down in the fellowship hall in here, and he said, I've got this settled. That's what this book does. It really helps us in those areas. Now, here's the thing. I want you to notice now in verse 15, and I want to read verse 15 through 17. And I'm just going to give you some passages in a moment. And I told you I struggled a little bit this evening about how to go with this. I started to just leave the first part off of it, but I still needed to talk about Christ and His youth for a few moments to help young men if they listen to this sermon. But notice now, I want to come to verse 17. So we already find out that this young man is an overcomer, overcome the wicked one. The word is dwelling in his heart and he is strong in the Lord. We already see that. So now notice in verses 15 through 17, the warning that is given here. And he says in verse 15, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. I think people need to study and find out what the world is. You know, the world is not the plants and the birds and the trees and so forth. The world is the world of sin. that organized system headed up by Satan that is in rebellion against God. It's in anything that is in rebellion against God. It's its beliefs, its values, its morals, its philosophies, its attitudes, its entertainments and so forth. That's what he means by the world. Not telling you you can't enjoy nature. So he says in verse 15, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, notice the love of the Father is not in him. Now, why do we struggle with this? Think about what he's saying in this passage. If any man love the world, if he's chasing those things, the love of the Father is not in him. This book shows us whether we are saved or not. It shows us whether we have the Spirit of God in us and where our desires and hearts are at. So there's three things in our passage that make up the world. This is going to be in verse 16. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And we're either going in one direction or the other. This doesn't mean that we've brought everything to perfection, but we're either going in one direction or the other. We're on that straight and narrow path, or either we're on the broad road that leads to hell. Now notice in verse 16, he breaks down the three areas that make up the world. Not the trees and the plants, but to make up this system that is in rebellion against God. The first thing that he mentions here in verse 16, he says, for all that is in the world, notice he said, the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh is the pleasures of this world. It can include sexual or social sins. 1 Peter 2.11 said, abstain from fleshy lusts which war against the soul. It not only wars against the body, but it wars against the soul. And the flesh here, many times it's used in a large sense as our corrupt Adamic nature that we inherited from Adam. So we have that sin, the pleasures, you know, that the Bible speaks about in Hebrews. the pleasures for a season. That's about how long they last too. There are pleasures out there, but there are certain pleasures that are against God and they only last for a season. Notice the second thing in verse 16 is the lust of the eye. One writer said that's profit. The first is pleasure and this is profit. In other words, the lust of the eyes, the things we behold, the things we see, the things we long for, And this can include covetousness, materialism, and things of that nature. We've been through this a hundred times. 1 Corinthians 5.11, not even sit down and eat with a covetous man that professes to know Christ. 1 Corinthians 6.9-11, the covetous man as well as the fornicator shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Colossians 3 of 5, covetousness is idolatry. One of the 10 commandments is thou shall not covet. And Exodus chapter 20 and Luke 12 in verse 10, take heed and beware of covetousness for a man's life consists not in the abundance of things which he possesses. So this is a serious sin as well as the lust of the flesh. Of course, this is the American dream. Now notice the next thing. We see and notice in verse 16 again, he said the next thing is the pride of life. As one writer put it, he said this has to do with position. In these three sins, you've got pleasure, profit, and position. And he said the third set forth in a climatic order, sensuality, covetousness, and pride. And we know that pride, the pride of life, it stains and affects every part of our life. And we all deal with it to some extent. It's called idolatry. And here's a quote. I've given this to you many times. Because there's many forms of pride. There's many forms. It can come with talents, abilities, strength, wealth, rank, race, education, beauty. It can come from a thousand different things. We see a lot of pride in politics. We see a lot of pride in sports. We see a lot of pride in competitions and things of that nature. But I love this. I've kept this quote close to me because this sin brings everything to a climax. And it says, sensuality is corruption of the lowest part of man's being that sinks him to the level of a beast. But pride is the corruption of the highest part of his nature, lifting up his understanding and spirit against God and enters into fellowship with the devil. That's pretty serious business. So these are the three areas that we will be tempted with as far as the world is concerned. Now he's saying to the young man that loves God, you're an overcomer. The word of God lives within you. It is shaping and forming you into the person of Christ. But notice now the next verse in verse 17, a very sobering passage as well. He said in verse 17, and the world passes away and the lust thereof, but he that, what is the next word? Doeth. This is not teaching works-based salvation. But it is teaching, as in Ephesians 2.10 says, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. He said, he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. In other words, he's permanent. He's heir of eternal life in the kingdom of God and that cannot be shaken. He doeth the will of God. Look at verse 29. In verse 29, if you know that he is righteous, speaking of Christ, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of God. And we see this again in verse six. And we see this again, the contrast in Romans six, verse 16 through 20, the contrast of those who do wickedness and those who do righteousness. shows the fruit of those who have truly been born again. And that's why that obedience to the gospel is so important. Acts 6, 7 says they were obedient to the gospel. Romans 10, 16 says that many of the Israelites were not obedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, there's many... Well, let me read verses 18 and 19. He said, little children, it is the last time, as you've heard, that Antichrist shall come. Even now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. Now notice what I mean, verse 19. He said, they went out from us, but they were not of us, for if... And by the way, notice the many Antichrists. What is an antichrist? We find as come the scriptures, those who oppose Christ. We find it again in chapter two, verse 18. We find it again in chapter four, verse one, two, and three. We find it again in second John. And so those who oppose Christ, those who are disobedient to Christ. It's not just some one figure is going to show up one day and rule the world. They were many antichrists in the first century. They oppose Christ in belief and in conduct. They did not want Him. but they were in the church for a while. He said in verse 19, and they went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Christian apostates as we preached on about three weeks ago. So in verse 20, we have the word unction. He said ye have, but ye have an unction from the Holy One. And then in verse 27, he uses the word anointing. So the Christian, we still live in this body of flesh and we have to deal with it. But the Christian, the word unction here and the anointing are pretty much the same. The meaning is, is that the Holy Ghost abides within the believer, illuminating them. And what we look at here is the anointing is absolutely necessary, not only for salvation from verse 21 down through verse 29, but it's absolutely necessary for our sanctification and religious matters. to keep us from being deceived. It's the Word and the Spirit that help keep us being deceived, you know, by the religious world out here. So, in these verses, notice again, as we read in verse 29, then we're going to turn to Titus. In verse 29, he says, If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of God. In other words, the Word is abiding in them. And they don't leave the truth as we just read in verse 19. They may have light, but they do not have life. I've been saying that a lot here lately. They may have been enlightened as in Hebrews 6, 4, but they do not have eternal life. And this is why so many young people, as well as adults, are not walking with the Lord. Now, let's look in Titus. Let's look in Titus. I'm going to be able to finish this. I didn't think I would. Let's look in Titus. And there's a multitude of examples that are given to us in the Scripture. And Daniel, if you've taken notes in Daniel 1.8 and Daniel 6.5, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would serve God And then between those two chapters, even his enemies could find no fault in Daniel. They could find no fault in him. He's a godly example. 1 Samuel 3, we find that, well, first of all, Samuel was dedicated at birth to the Lord. But we find that also as we read 1 Samuel 1, 1 Samuel 2, and chapter 3, we find that God began speaking to Samuel at a very early age. We have Joseph, talked about him briefly this morning, at 17 years of age. God began speaking to him in dreams and eventually used him to save an entire family and nation from being destroyed. He actually saved Egypt as well from the famines. And God began speaking to him at 17 years of age. Can God use young people? Absolutely. And then Josiah went to the throne at eight. I've never got all that figured out yet, but he went to the throne at eight years of age, but God began dealing with his heart at an early age. I'm not going to say his eight, but he began dealing with his heart at an early age. And through him, revival and reform came to an entire nation. Now let's read in Titus, we'll close in first Peter. Notice in Titus, now this chapter begins in verse 1, but speak thou the things which becometh sound doctrine. We have the aged men in verse 2, their responsibilities. We have the aged women in verse 3 and their responsibilities. We have the young women in verse 4 and 5. But verse 6, 7, and 8, we have the young men, and that's our subject tonight. So let's consider this, counsel for young men. The apostle speaks of the duties of young men. And by the way, as he writes this letter, Titus is a young man. Timothy is a young man. I'm going to give you two verses, 1 Timothy 4, 12. Timothy is a young minister and Paul told him by the authority of God to be an example in word, conversation, charity, spirit, faith, and purity. And then in 2 Timothy 2, 22, he is to give warning, some things he's to flee and some things he's to embrace. But notice in Titus, And when we say that verse 1 is talking about sound doctrine, I want you to understand that things we're going to be reading from verse 6 through 8, and we're going to read verse 10 with this, but 6 through 8, this is sound doctrine. He says in verse 6, young men likewise. In other words, as the young ladies or young women. Young men, likewise, exhort to be sober-minded." That's much more than not being drunk. You can never take a drink or take a smoke off of a marijuana in your life and still not be sober-minded. You can be very foolish. He says here, young men, likewise, exhort to be sober-minded. In verse 7, "...in all things showing thyself a pattern, being an example. Notice of good works. Again, Ephesians 2, 10. Good works show up in our text in chapter one in verse 16, shows up again in chapter two in verse 14. We're a peculiar people, zealous, to be zealous of good works. It shows up again in chapter three and in verse eight, And it shows up again in chapter 3 and verse 14. But notice he says in verse 7, in all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works, notice in doctrine, showing uncorruptness. In other words, purity. Then he says gravity and sincerity. In other words, honesty. Verse 8, notice sound speech. that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you." So, the chapter begins with sound doctrine, and in these verses we've just read is sound doctrine for young men. Notice in verse 10, Notice in verse 10. So the three verses we just read speak of piety, integrity, holiness, purity, good works, and being an example. That's enough to work on for many years, is it not? Now notice in verse 10, he says, "...not prolonging, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." Adorning the doctrine of God. As a frame can enhance the beauty of a picture, A holy life actually makes attractive the gospel to those who behold it. And it really does. It's attractive. Now, I want you to turn with me to 1 Peter 5 and we will close. 1 Peter 5, I think we close with this passage, Mother's Day. Now notice as we come here and close. We find very clearly that youth are to be submitted to the elders and they're to be clothed in humility. Notice verse 5 and 6. Verse 5 and 6. He says here, likewise you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, in all of you submit one to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Would you stand with me tonight? Father, we thank Thee this evening again for this time that You've given us today. We ask Your blessings now upon the singing, the prayer request. And Father, help us all to take the Scriptures that we've read today, to take them to heart, to believe them. Lord, help us, especially as men, as grandfathers, fathers, the young men, We pray that we will be what we should be. For Thy sake, for it's in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.