Psalms 119. I have one verse of Scripture
I want to read to you. It's found in Psalms 119, in
verse 9. I'm going to open my Pew Bible,
and it's on page 703, if you have problem finding it this
morning. I want to read this one verse
to you. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, by taking
heed thereto according to thy word. Wherewithal shall a young
man cleanse his way. Sometimes God speaks to specific
classes of people. Sometimes he speaks to widows. Sometimes he speaks to orphans
that follow us. Sometimes he speaks to those
who are tempted and in great trials. Sometimes he speaks to
the age, those who are old. Even to your old age, I am he. And even in your gray hairs,
I will carry you. And sometimes God speaks to the
young, as He does here in my text. Wherewithal shall a young
man cleanse his way. But He not only speaks to your
class, dear young person here this morning, but He is more
specific than that. He speaks to you as an individual
young person. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way." He's not speaking to me. I'm not a young man. He's not speaking to most of
us here this morning. Most of us are either adults
or middle class or seniors. He's not speaking to us. But
if you're here this morning and you're young, you are a young
man or a young woman or a boy or a girl, God is speaking to
you this morning. Are you an adolescent? Are you
a teenager? Then God is speaking to you. Remember now your Creator in
the days of your youth. If you're here this morning,
dear young person, and you're of the opinion that God is only
concerned about adult people, and that He only speaks to grown-ups,
and you're of the opinion that God is not concerned with you
and with your ways, then you're wrong. Because here He speaks
not only to your class, as young people, but he speaks to you
as an individual. A young man. Or a young woman. The Lord Jesus was preaching
one day, and he said, Suffer the little children to come unto
me, and forbid them not. The little children. Are you
here this morning and you are a child? I'm not a child. I'm an old man. I am 60 years
old. He's not speaking to me, but
he's speaking here to the children. There are parents here this morning
with young children. There are grandparents here this
morning with young children. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
to these young children. He's addressing this to you.
Isn't this amazing, young children? Sissy, isn't that amazing? The
Son of God would come down from heaven, and He was so careful
to let you know that He cared for you, that He was concerned
for you, that He not only said it, but He made sure that it
was written down in a book that I could get up this morning and
read it to you. and let you know that there is
a message from the Lord to you. That He is concerned about you. That He is concerned about the
way that you take. This is not speaking in what
we call metaphor terms. He is not saying, if you are
as a young person, even though you are forty years old, He is
talking about little children, young adults, teenagers. He took a little child one day,
five or six years old, and set him down there in the mistletoe.
And he said, if you are a child like this, then come unto me. Come unto me. There was a great prophet by
the name of Samuel. We all remember the great Samuel,
don't we? He was one of the greatest prophets
Israel had ever known. Samuel was just a little boy. His mother had taken him up to
the temple, and that's where he lived with Eli the priest. One night the little boy Samuel
was asleep on his bed, and he heard a voice. And it says, Samuel,
Samuel. And Samuel jumped out of bed
and ran to Eli the priest. And he said, Master, I'm here.
What do you want? And Eli said, I didn't speak
to you, young man. Go back and lay down. And the
little boy Samuel went and laid down again. And he heard this
voice, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel jumps up and he runs
to Eli again. And he said, Master, I'm here.
You call me. He said, no, I didn't call you.
Go lay down again. And the little boy went and laid
down and he heard the voice again, Samuel, Samuel. And little Samuel
jumps up and he runs and said, I'm here, you call me. And Eli says, Samuel, dear child,
it's not me speaking to you. It's the Lord speaking to you.
And He says, you go lay down in your bed. And the next time
you hear that voice, Samuel, Samuel, say this, Lord thy servant,
hear us speak. Listen to me, young people, this
morning. You teenagers, you children, it is not me speaking to you. This is the Lord speaking. It's
not me that says, remember your Creator in the days of your youth. It's not me that's saying, let
the little children come unto me. That's the Lord. That is
God. And this is the way He speaks
to you. He speaks to you through His
Word. When you open up the Bible and
read it, that's God speaking. And who is he speaking to? He
is speaking to you. Paul had a friend, a young friend,
and his name was Timothy. And Timothy was just a child.
And his grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice, used to open
up the Bible and read to little Timothy. And one day Timothy
began to realize, this is not my grandmother speaking to me.
This is not my mom speaking to me. This is God speaking, and
He is speaking to me. And Paul wrote back to him years
later, and he said, Timothy, from a child you have known the
Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise until salvation. There is a message in this Bible. There is a message in this Word. And it is the message of salvation,
eternal salvation for your soul. And it is for you. It is for you. It's not just
for me as a 60-year-old man. It's not just for the adults
here this morning. This message of salvation, dear
young person, is from God to you. Now, isn't that wonderful
in itself? That here you are this morning,
and you're a little child. You're a young person. You're
a teenager. And the Creator of this earth
has been so mindful to speak to you and let you know that
He is concerned with you. Ain't that amazing? How do I know that He is? My text tells me so, and I hope
it tells you so. Now this Word, and look at it.
I want you to take, if you don't have you a Bible, take your pew
Bible and look at this Word. Word with all. Word with all. Those who know the meaning of
these words tell us that this has to do with interrogation. It means to interrogate. You
young children know what it is to be interrogated, don't you? You're at school and one of your
friends on the playground has been pushed down and she has
an injury. She's broken a leg. And the ambulance
comes and takes her to the hospital. And the teacher brings you in
and the children in. And what does the teacher do?
She begins to ask questions, doesn't she? Did you see what happened? Were
you on the playground when she was pushed? Did you see who did
it? Did you do it? What's she doing? She's interrogating. She's asking
questions to get some information. That's what this Word here means.
We're with all. They tell us it means four things,
and they're all questions. What? Why? When and how? From what shall a young man be
cleansed? From what does he need to be
cleaned? And secondly, why must he be
cleaned? Why? What's the need of it? And
thirdly, when does a young man need to be cleansed? And fourthly,
how? Can you be cleansed? Isn't that
four good questions to ask? And it's all to you. I know the
answer to these questions. But what He does, He asks you
these questions. He interrogates you. And then
He says, here's the answer, by taking heed to thy word. We find these answers in God's
Word. Now, let's look at it right quickly.
From what? Does a young man, a young person,
from what does a young child need to be cleansed? Well, he
says here, doesn't he? His ways. Wherewithal shall a
young child, a young person, be clean from their ways. You see, what God does, He tells
us of the way that's right. And when we've not obeyed Him,
when we've not done as God tells us to do, what do we do? We defile our ways, don't we? Listen now. God tells you to
honor your father and your mother. And they tell you to do something,
but you don't want to do it. So what do you do? You disobey
your father and your mother. And not only do you disobey them,
you have an attitude that is hateful towards your mom and
your dad. And even under your breath, as
you go off, though they can't hear you, you say, I hate you. And what have you done? You've
disobeyed God. You've not done as he tells you
to do in honoring your father and your mother. And what have
you done? You've defiled your ways. God tells you this. He tells you not to bear false
witness. Don't you lie on someone to get
them in trouble. But there's someone that you
don't like and you want to get them in trouble. So you've told
something on them that's not true. Or you've told something on someone
else to keep yourself out of trouble. And what have you done?
You've disobeyed God. And you've defiled your ways. God tells you not to steal. But
you found something in the classroom that's not yours. And what did
you do? You sneak. And you hide it in
your pocket. And you keep it for yourself.
You didn't get your own homework. So you saw your classmate's homework. And what did you do? You stole
theirs. You walked in through a grocery
store and you saw a candy bar or you saw a magazine and you
wanted it. But dad or mom said no. So what
did you do? You sneaked and got it and kept
it. And what did you do? You defiled
your ways. You have not obeyed God. God
tells us not to lie. But sometimes you are afraid
you are going to get into trouble. So what do you do? You lie. And
what have you done? You have defiled your ways. From what should a young man
and a young child be cleansed? They are ways that they have
defiled. You have not taken heed to God's
Word, and therefore your ways are defiled. Therefore, you must
be cleansed. Here is another question. Not
only from what, but why must we be cleansed? Why must you
be cleansed? Here you are, you say, I'm just
a child. I'm just a young person. But
you know something? Sin is sin. If we disobey God, then our ways are defiled. And
before we can walk with God in His ways, we have to be cleansed. God is holy. God's ways are holy. And before we can have fellowship
with Him and be friends with Him, we have to be forgiven of
our disobedience. We have to be washed. We have
to be cleaned from our defilement. The Bible says this, if we walk
in the light, As He is in the light, we have fellowship with
Him. We're friends with Him. We're
in joy in Him. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. But if we say we have
fellowship with Him, and we walk in darkness, what is darkness? That's sin, ain't it? That's
sin. And if we just say that we have
fellowship with God and we continue on in our sins, we lie and do
not the truth. To have fellowship with God and
to know the love of Christ, we must be cleansed from our sins. If it's raining outside and it's
muddy, And your mom and your dad told you, don't go outside.
You stay inside. Because the weather is not fit
to be out. But mom and dad, they go into
another room. And you put on your shoes and
you sneak outside. And after a while, your shoes
are covered and caked in mud. And you've fallen and your clothes
are filthy. And you come running back into
the house. And you walk across that beautiful
white carpet. And you sit down on Mom's clean
couch. And everything's a mess. And
there you sit until you hear Mom's voice. You hear Dad coming
from the other room. Then what happens? You can't be still then, can
you? What's the problem? You want to get up and run away,
don't you? Why? Look at your clothes. Look at
that beautiful white carpet. You can see the look on Mom's
face, can't you? You can hear the harshness in
Dad's voice, can't you? What's the problem? You've disobeyed. And now you're guilty. And now
you're afraid. And you can enjoy that in Mom,
can't you? Why? Because you've defiled your
ways. You see, the Father's house,
God's house, is holy. God's highway is a highway of
holiness. It's a way of obedience. And if you're living in your
sins and you've defiled your way, you're afraid of God. If He should speak to you, you'd
want to run and hide. Why? Look at you. Look at you. I've disobeyed Him. I'm wrong. And you'll never be able to fellowship
with Him and enjoy God. Until you're washed, you see. Why must you be washed? You must be right with God. You
defiled your conscience and you're guilty. And now your conscience
has to be cleansed. Your conscience has to be washed.
And then when that happens, then you'll enjoy God. Then you don't have to be afraid
of Him. then you'll know His love and you can walk with Him
in the light. Why? Why? You must be saved from
your sins. What? Why? And now when? When should a young person That's a good question, isn't
it? I want you to take your little
pew Bible and turn to the right over into the book of Ecclesiastes. And if you can't find it, it's
on page 755 in your little pew Bible. 755. This tells us when. Look here in chapter 11 and look
in verse 9 and verse 10. Here is God in heaven speaking
to you young children this morning. Here is what He says to you.
In verse 9 of Ecclesiastes chapter 11, page 755. Rejoice, O young
man, in your youth. And let your heart cheer you
in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart,
and in the sight of your eyes. But know thou, know this, that
for all these things God will bring you to judgment. Therefore
remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh.
For childhood and youth are vanity. Remember now your Creator in
the days of your youth. When should you be cleansed?
Now, in the days of your youth. You shouldn't wait until you're
twenty or thirty or forty. Now is the accepted time. Right now, this morning, on this
Lord's Day morning, now is when you should remember your Creator. Why is that? Why now? Read on in verse 1. While the evil days come not,
nor the years draw near, when you shall say, I have no pleasure
in them." Why should you remember your Creator this morning? Why
should you seek your Creator for cleansing this morning? Because the evil days may soon
come. An evil day may soon come. I have lived long enough. I said
I'm 60 years old. I have lived long enough, and
some of you have, to see several generations come and go now. I have seen several children
barned and grow up, just like some of you kids here this morning,
and grow into adulthood, and they've had kids. I've seen several
come and go. And I've seen so many of them
come into a day of trouble. And it came because they did
not seek and remember their Creator while they were young. Evil came. Evil. Isn't that an awful word? Evil. Could evil come upon you? I had my oldest son. Some of
you know his situation. He came to my house three or
four years ago. And he was all bent over in pain,
withdrawals from his drug use. And we tried to find some place
that would get him in to rehab where he could get some help.
No place was available. And he was in an awful, awful
mess. And I said, son, is there anything
I can do? He said, dad, there's a place
you can take me and get me some drugs and I'll be fine. I tell you that's the hardest
thing I've ever faced. And I told him, I said, son,
I'll see you dead. I'll see you dead before I'll
contribute to your sin. That evil day has come on my
son. There was a time when I had hope
for him. I had some hope. that he had
indeed remembered his Creator and was seeking to cleanse himself
from his defilement. But he told me one day, he said,
Dad, there isn't any hope for me. There's no hope for me. I don't know if there is or not. But I do know this. Listen. Sin
will harden your heart. You may be tender this morning. And you may say this morning,
Pastor, I don't want to go on in sin. I would love for the
Lord to save me. Then be earnest with Him about
that. Because if you just tell me that and you don't tell Him
that, there'll come a day when you'll
be tender no longer. There will come a day when habits
will control you, and you can't get loose from them. Satan, who hates you, he will
lead you into such thick darkness that you can't find your way
out of it. Day. Satan seeks to destroy your soul,
young child. And he lays the foundation for
your destruction in your youth. Here is where he begins to whisper
to you this morning, you are just young, you have got plenty
of time. You've got other things that
you need to do that you couldn't do if you were a Christian. Put
it off! Put it off! Put it off! But what
is God saying to you this morning? Remember! Remember! Now, your Creator. Oh, not only before the evil
day comes. And who knows when it might come? But verse 1 tells us here, the
years will draw near until you're my age, you see. Ramey, how old are you this morning?
Eight? You know you'll be sixty someday?
You're going to look just like me then. You're going to have
more hair on your head. You've got to have glasses to
see. And you know what you're going to say, Ramey? I don't
feel as good as I used to. a few more years, and I'm going
to say, I don't have any pleasure in this world anymore. Wouldn't it be wonderful? Wouldn't
it be wonderful when you're old, instead of looking back over
a life of sin and disobedience to God, You can look back over
a life, and you can say with young Timothy, from a child,
I've known the Holy Scriptures. And now I'm wise unto salvation. I know how God saved sinners.
And I know that Christ is my Savior. And you can say with
David the great king, I once was young, but now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed bagging. Wouldn't that be wonderful? You're going to be old. Saber
Hunter, you're going to be old. You're beautiful now, but someday
you're going to be wrinkly and weak. Remember now your Creator. Why should I seek to be clean
this morning? Because things are going to change
for you if you don't. Things are going to change for
you if you don't. Oh, to look back on a lifetime
of memories of God's faithfulness and God's goodness and God's
promises fulfilled to you. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Miranda
sent me a message by A man down south, I've never heard of him
before, she hadn't either, but she sent it to me to listen to,
a wonderful message. And then she called me after
that, she said, did you notice when he said the Lord saved him?
And I had noticed that. He said the Lord saved him when
he was four years old. And I don't know if Miranda asked
me about what I thought about that or not, but you know what
I think about that? I wish he'd have saved me when
I was four years old. Wouldn't that be wonderful? To
make me know my need of being saved? And to save me? Have you ever regretted, Glenn,
Him saving you? Do you know the only regrets
we have? That He didn't save us earlier? Oh, remember now then, dear child,
dear young children, Remember this morning, this is not me
speaking, this is God speaking to you. And lastly is this, how can a
young man, how can a young child cleanse his way? If you're here
this morning, dear young child, and your way is defiled, your
conscience is guilty, you've disobeyed God, And now you're
afraid, and you want to be cleansed? The Word is going to tell you
how you can be cleansed. And I want you to take your pew
Bible, and I want you to turn over to your right in Zachariah. I'll find it here in this pew
Bible, and I'll even tell you what page it's on. It's on page 100, 1000, and 29. Zechariah
chapter 13. He's going to tell a young person
how to cleanse their ways. Look down here in Zechariah chapter
13. And look in verse 6, because
we want to know who this is talking to. Somebody is talking to somebody
else. In Zechariah chapter 13, verse
6, And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thy
hands? Now, who has wounds in their
hands? Who has prints in their hands? Nail prints. Could somebody tell me who that
is? It's Christ, isn't it? Jesus. He said to Thomas, reach
into your hands and put them into these prints, into these
wounds. That's the Son of God. He's got
wounds in His hands and He had a hole in His side. And he shall answer those with
which I was wounded in the house of my friends." Those that should
have been my friends. And what happened? How did he
get these wounds? What happened to the Lord Jesus?
In verse 7, look at this. This is speaking to him, about
him. A Waco sort of justice and judgment
against my shepherd. Now, who is the shepherd? Do you know anywhere in the New
Testament, in the Old Testament, somebody is called the shepherd? I am the shepherd. Ain't that
what Christ is? And David said, the Lord is my
shepherd. Who is this shepherd? Jesus,
the Son of God. And the sword of God's justice
smote him. Look at this. Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, my
friend, my companion, said the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd. and the sheep shall be scattered,
and I will turn my hand upon the little ones." You remember
when the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross of Calvary, and
they took that spear and they put it in His side and twisted
it? And it was stuck right in His
heart, right here in His heart. And all this blood come gushing
out. Remember that? You know what that is? That's the fountain that you
can wash in and be clean. You see, God has not only written
in His Word that He's concerned about the young children, and
He directs you that you need to be cleansed. He's been so
careful that He's provided you a fountain to wash in. He's not telling you. He's not
telling you it's going to be difficult for you to wash. You're
going to have to try real, real hard to find some place to do
something. No, He says to you, I provided
the fountain. Look back up in verse 1. Zechariah
chapter 13 and verse 1. Here it is. In that day there
shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem. Why is this fountain open? For
sin and for uncleanness. Have you got mom and dad's white
carpet all messed up with your mud? Is your clothes all filthy? You take everything and put them
in the washer, don't you? And you go and you run your big
hot tub of water and you wash and you're clean. But when your
conscience is filthy, when your conscience is guilty, here's
a fountain that you can come to and wash. And all your guilt
will be washed away. And then you can walk under this
fountain And then you can live under the fountain of Jesus'
precious blood. You can live there all your life,
and you'll find God will be a merciful Father to you. In this life,
you thought your father down here, Jack, you thought your
dad was a good dad? Oh, he is, ain't he? But oh, what a Heavenly Father
you would have when you come to this fountain and wash in
it. And He'll not only be a Father
to you here, He'll be an everlasting Father to you out in eternity. Wash. Wash, young children. Wash. Come to the Lord Jesus
Christ and bring His Word with you. and say, I come, Lord Jesus,
because You told me, let the little children come unto Thee. And I'm a child, but I've sinned.
I've defiled my way, but I come to be washed. And cast your soul
upon the Lord Jesus, and your ways will be cleansed. May God
give you grace to do it. Let's pray. Oh, Father, blessed
Father, Oh, Father in Heaven, the Creator of the ends of the
earth. Oh, Lord, what can we say for
such compassion, such love, such grace, such concern? Oh, we bless You that You've
written these things in Your Word. Thank You that You've given
promises and instructions to me. As I get older, oh, I thank you
for them. I need them so bad. And thank
you that you've given these promises and these instructions to these
children, to our children. Oh, I pray they won't leave here
this day, thanking that you're not concerned about them, that
you don't care. Oh, don't let the devil teach
them that. Or make them to know that you are concerned, that
these things that you've written are written to them and nobody
else. All for your glory we ask these things. Thank you for our
food today. Thank you for the dear ladies
that love us and prepare it for us. In our Lord Jesus' name,
Amen.