Why do young people not turn the Christ? Hosts Scott Brown and Jason Dohm, joined by guest Carlton McLeod, answer this question, giving ten common lies that ensnare unsaved youth: (1) you’ll be deprived of pleasure; (2) faithfulness to God is impossible; (3) you’ll be beset by trials and tribulations;  (4) you'll be reproached; (5) you won’t be prosperous; (6) you’ll be unfashionable; (7) you will die young and miss all the fun; (8) you won’t be able to keep it up for very long; (9) you have plenty of time; and (10) there are many ways to God. Rather than fall for these deceptions, young people should come to Christ without delay: “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’” (Eccles. 12:1). 

Thank you for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast. We've got Carlton, McLeod, and we're going to talk about the difference between pietism and dominionism and how important it is to engage the battle. Also one of the ways you engage that battle is to make the local church your center of your family life. I give this book, The Family at Church, How Parents Are Tour Guides for Joy. Hope you enjoy the discussion.

So Jason, we're going to talk about a section in this book, Early Piety, A Call to the Rising Generation. This is a book full of sermons that were preached in Puritan, New England, really as an effort to recover a generation that was being lost. But we're going to talk about one little section in this book about why young people delay turning to the Lord and really submitting their lives to Him. Let's let Isaiah 55, 6 and 7 frame this for us. Isaiah 65 verses 6 and 7.

Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." This is such an important thought that you should seek the Lord while He is near, and you should call upon Him while He may be found. Young people think that they can do it any old day while they're sitting under preaching, they're feeling conviction, but they think, I'll just wait, and it's foolishness.

So this book, this section of this book is really helpful to drive young people to not think that way, because it's simply not true that you can seek the lid, that anytime the Lord may be found, it's not so. And you know, it's interesting because we're preaching to children all the time. And so these kind of things are in our minds. Carlton, What comes to mind about this whole problem of a child who's delays for some fear, some reason? Well, you know, if we think back to when we were children, Scott, how influenced we were by people around us, by our own friends, how limited our understanding was at the time.

It's just what comes to mind for me is just reminds me of how difficult it was to be 12, 13, 14, 15 years old, sitting under good preaching, but at the same time feeling this enormous pressure coming from the world of flesh and the devil. And it also reminds me as a preacher, you know, I love this section of the book because it it almost reads like an apologetic for a pastor to keep these things in mind while you're preaching that these are some of the things that young people are dealing with. Yeah, absolutely. You know, this section in early Piety, the author begins by citing the rich young ruler who walked away. He walked away because of a fear.

His riches were too precious to him. Well, that was one reason. So then the author just spins out these different reasons. We're going to try to cover 10 of them that are in this book. So we'll have to move fairly quickly.

But I think we all resonate with these. I resonate with them personally. When I was young, I struggled with most of these things before I really thought I should really give up and follow Jesus. Hey, but here's the core of it. To not embrace the gospel is to reject the gospel.

Right. To delay in deciding is to reject the gospel. It is not a neutral ground that you're standing on when you refuse to embrace the gospel. Yeah. So let's run through these here.

The first fear, you will be deprived of pleasure. You will be deprived of pleasure. Yeah, I love the way the author attacks this from, I mean, he just, he lays out such a complete case that not only are there wonderful pleasures, if you will, in a godly life, but also for those things that you reject, not only are they not needful and they aren't beneficial, but there's so much more in heaven that awaits us. And so he gives a really complete answer that there are wonderful things, there are pleasures and fullness and joy in the Christian life, but even when you have to deny your flesh and take up your cross, everything that we'll experience with Christ is worth it. In His presence is fullness of joy.

At His right hand are pleasures forevermore. That's actually the truth. The devil wants you to think you're going to get deprived of something and it's just not true. It's a lie. So just let me read some from this section.

Godliness is not as sourly illustrated a thing as you may imagine it to be. And then he talks about what Solomon found about chasing fleeting pleasures. Here's what he says about Solomon. And what satisfaction did all this afford him? Why, Truly none at all.

He said of laughter, madness, and of mirth, what does it accomplish? Ecclesiastes 2.2. Again, they are vanishing and perishing. The world passes away, and so do the lusts thereof. The pleasures of sin are but for a season and a very short season too.

They will perish with the using. They are easily disturbed and dashed and quickly over and gone. Once more, they are destructive and deadly. Bitter sweets." Yeah. Yeah.

So the second objection is faithfulness to God is impossible. In other words, this is just too hard, it's too high of a bar, I can never attain. How would you answer that? Well, again, the answer is so wonderful. He begins by acknowledging the difficulty in the answer.

He says, essentially, I'm going to be straight with you. It's not always easy. So I like that because we all know that that's true. But Then there's this other part that he mentions. I'll just pull one verse, I can do all things to Christ which strengthens me.

And in so many other verses that he uses, but there's This idea that faithfulness by the grace of God is a part of the Christian life and is possible for us. We sin, we fail, but God keeps us by His own strength. God gives grace to the humble, right? Yeah, He also turns the tables in a way that I thought was amazing. Listen to this.

Oh, what pains will men take? What difficulties will they go through? And what hardships will they endure in prosecuting matters of far less concern and affairs that relate only to the body and the life that now is? What trouble will men be at to get the riches or the honors or the pleasures of this world traveling both sea and land for them? What a folly then.

What a shame is it for you to make such an objection in this case?" In other words, you say it's too hard to follow God, but you'll go to the ends of the earth for money or for pleasure. Hey, try to go through a tribulation without God, without His Spirit, without His Word to direct you. Try to die. How about that? Try to die without God sustaining you.

So the next is, you will be reproached. Yes, you will be reproached. But if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. Absolutely, we will be. We can rejoice and be exceedingly glad.

Guess that's how you handle that one. It's coming, but rejoice. Who are you getting reproached by? You're getting reproached by people who hate God. Okay.

Yeah. He says, the jests and scoffs you may meet with will be so far from a disparagement to you that they will be your honor. In other words, when you're reproached by God haters, you should actually wear that as a badge of honor. Yeah. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven's great. Yeah. God gives the Christian the ability to ride through the reproaches. He gives him the wisdom. I mean, here's the deal.

God, in his word, teaches you how to walk through everything. And he teaches you how to walk through trials and tribulations. Now, you can walk through this world without his help, without his wisdom if you want, but you can have actual wisdom from heaven to walk through everything that happens in your life. So then the next one, I really liked this one. You will not be prosperous.

To me, that's the most ridiculous thing. He starts to answer by quoting Jesus, what I beseech you as a man profited if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul, or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? In other words, even if that were true, What does it matter if you were to be given the whole world but to lose your soul? You would lose all. It would be no profit to you.

So even if that were true, you shouldn't care. Right. But it's not necessarily true. We're given so many principles on how to steward what God has given us and indeed to take dominion over the things that God has given us and to grow the things that God has given us. So it's not necessarily true.

As Christians, we keep prosperity in the right view, in the right bucket, right? It's a tool, but not our treasure. Yeah, and God gives you the ability to rejoice in whatever prosperity he gives because it's from his hand. Psalm 127, 128, make that really clear. I mean, you're rejoicing at a meal around your table.

You're rich. You've got these olive plants called children around your table and you're a rich man. God actually makes his children wealthy, sometimes in material things, but he makes them wealthy in having people in a local church, people in their own family. God does make you wealthy. He says this, however, the objection is not true.

Godliness is a friend to outward prosperity and is profitable to all things. So what does he mean by godliness is a friend to prosperity? He means that when you cultivate godliness, you get the reliability and truthfulness and work ethic that is so often rewarded in a workplace. And you find yourself doing well because people need godly people in their businesses. That's right.

Paul wrote godliness with contentment is great gain. I've been amazed at just how the Contentment by itself produces so much. Not that we're not working hard, but that we're content with what we have. We don't feel like we need to buy everything under the sun. It's amazing how quickly you can become more prosperous when you have contentment.

Hey, God prospers people who are not proud. God prospers people who show up on time. God prospers people who keep their promises. God prospers people who do what they're supposed to do. Those are the kind of people that keep jobs, okay?

Right, and it advances them. And it advances them. Those Christian virtues that the Holy Spirit foments, they actually do cause a kind of prosperity in the world. Scott Brown believes in the prosperity gospel. You heard it here first.

I do. I do. Yeah. We, you can quote some verses on that for sure. Yeah.

There is a kind of prosperity gospel actually. So you will not be prosperous. That's ridiculous. This one, you, you will be unfashionable. You know, I have to admit, I laughed at this one because he gives this very short answer.

His answer is like, yeah, yeah, you will. Because serious religion and strict godliness is but an unfashionable thing in the world, yet it is of infinite concern to us that we heartily embrace it. He kind of acknowledges, yeah, yeah, it is. It is unfashionable. You're not going to be the cool kids.

Yeah, but here's the very next words. Let none urge this objection unless they are willing to lose the favor of God, the happiness of heaven and their own precious and immortal souls out of gentility. Are they willing to be damned and to go to hell for fashion's sake? This I hope you will account too awful a choice. The Broadway is never the better for being crowded.

What a line, The Broadway is never the better for being crowded. Yeah, fashions change as well, right? Fashions can pass you by. And do you want to be the kind of person that's just jerked around by the latest fashion? Well, the people of God are more stable than that.

They have something solid. And they have something that will never pass away, that will never become unfashionable. So this next one is a biggie. You will die young and miss all the fun. You'll miss all the fun.

This is another one where he sort of denies the premise. It is true that sometimes the godly die young, but it's no guarantee. If you're ungodly, you're actually engaging in things that are more likely to shorten your life. So you're not less likely to die young by being godly. You're more likely to live longer by being godly.

And that's actually established in the Word of God. And for anybody who's been looking around on planet Earth for any period of time will tell you, these things that the ungodly engage in reduce lifespans. Yeah, you won't miss all the fun. The things that are characterized as fun, many of them actually become a tremendous grief and a weight and a trouble in your life. I love this line here.

He says, suppose you do die young, you will have a sufficient or will you have a sufficient life? That promise with long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation may be fulfilled to one who dies in youth. It is the nature of grace to wean the soul from this life, to raise it above and to fix it upon another." And I love that line. I'm trying to communicate that, son, you're living for something, daughter, you're living for something greater than this denial can be a challenge for a parent. Yeah.

The last line of the section, if you are gracious, meaning if you've experienced the grace of God, if you are gracious, the days you lose on earth will be gained in heaven. Yeah. And then the next one, I actually remember very vividly thinking this one. You will not be able to keep it up for very long. And you know, when the Lord was saving me, I kept thinking, is this just a fad?

Is this just a thing? Is this just a season, you know, in my life? Is this going to last? I really, I really struggled with that. Is this going to last?

Well, guess what? It lasts. It lasted Like a long time. He actually says you should use the trepidation that you'll fall away to strip away self-confidence. It should only serve to take you off from self-confidence and put you upon a more humble and earnest seeking of that grace of God, which will be able to make you stand to confirm you unto the end." So he's actually saying there is a usefulness to this trepidation that you won't be able to keep it up to keep you from being so puffed up with pride that you end up falling because you were proud.

And then there are the great promises of Scripture. The same God who started the work in you will bring it to completion, or Jude's benediction now went to him who was able to keep you from falling. And so many other passages help us in this area. And he says, no true converts ever apostatize. There never was a true convert that totally apostatized.

Being confident, says the apostle, of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ, Philippians 1.6." So he's saying, Nobody who's ever been claimed by God's grace to belong to God has ever actually done this because God undertakes the work of both saving and keeping. Amen to that. And then the next one, you have plenty of time. You're young. You have plenty of time.

Oh boy. I've preached that one a time or two because that seems to prevail mightily among, among the youth. You, you, you feel like you do, But you never know when your time is up, when the Lord may call upon your soul. And that's what the scriptures indicate to us. James says, where is, you know not what she shall be on the morrow for what is your life.

It is even a vapor that appeared for a little while and then vanished away. He gives this a devastating two point critique of the objection. Point number one is, how do you know that you will have another time than this afforded to you? Right. You know what's going to happen tomorrow?

Point number two is, how can you expect to find acceptance with God hereafter if you neglect to seek and serve Him now? The hereafter you depend on may never come, but if it should, is God bound to accept you then? Must he take you up with the refuse and dregs of your time when you serve the world, the flesh and the devil with your flower and prime? May he not then justly say, Go to the gods you have chosen and served." So you read that sometimes in the prophets where God says, yeah, you were taking your offerings to these other gods, go to them for help now. And he's saying, why wouldn't God say that to you if you used up the prime of your life and then want to give him the dregs of your time.

Yeah, in many ways. And then number 10, the final objection is, look, there are many ways to God. Yeah, he's talking from a particularly Christian perspective and he says, hey, I'm not trying to win you to one party or another. We're trying to win you to the essentials of the gospel. The objection today would now probably be there are many ways to God, not just considering Christianity.

And obviously, some of them are a lot more palpable, and it seems like an easier and wide road. And to young people who are saying that, we're saying truth is what matters, not which way seems easier. Pick that one so you can scratch a religious itch. That's not what we're doing. We're not scratching a religious itch.

We're seeking the true God who has revealed Himself in Scripture. That's right. But our kids are growing up, our children are growing up in this very pluralistic culture. There's many voices saying many things. I mean, we live in a country now that they're building monoliths and statues to demon gods in the country.

So being able to not only stay with boldness and love, the truth of the gospel, that Christ is the only way, but having some answers for children when they ask questions, on the more on the apologetic side, I think is still a good thing to do. The largest Hindu temple in the world is being built about 40 minutes from where we're sitting here. Amazing. Yeah, true. Yeah, really remarkable.

So yeah, that's an important objection to answer. So you've got 10 objections here. I'll just run them through again. You'll be deprived of pleasure. Faithfulness to God is impossible.

You'll have trials and tribulations. You'll be reproached. You will not be prosperous. You will be unfashionable. You will die young and miss all the fun.

You will not be able to keep it up for very long. You have plenty of time. And by the way, there are many ways to God. And pastors, I think, have a duty to answer these questions because they're swimming around the minds of the young people that are listening to us as we preach. Ecclesiastes 12.1, remember now your creator in the days of your youth before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them.

Amen. Okay. Well, let's conclude with that. Yeah. Thank you, Carlton, for joining us on the Church and Family Life podcast.

And I hope you all can join us next time. Dot com