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Sermon Outline for this sermon.

Reading: Psalm 119: 1-16, WCF 19: 6

Text: Psalm 119:9

How can a young man keep his way pure?

Psalm 119:1-16 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Meditations and Prayers Relating to the Law of God.
Aleph.

119 How blessed are those whose way is [a]blameless,
Who walk in the law of the Lord.
2 How blessed are those who observe His testimonies,
Who seek Him with all their heart.
3 They also do no unrighteousness;
They walk in His ways.
4 You have [b]ordained Your precepts,
[c]That we should keep them diligently.
5 Oh that my ways may be established
To keep Your statutes!
6 Then I shall not be ashamed
When I look [d]upon all Your commandments.
7 I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
8 I shall keep Your statutes;
Do not forsake me utterly!
Beth.

9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping it according to Your word.

10 With all my heart I have sought You;
Do not let me wander from Your commandments.
11 Your word I have treasured in my heart,
That I may not sin against You.
12 Blessed are You, O Lord;
Teach me Your statutes.
13 With my lips I have told of
All the ordinances of Your mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies,
[e]As much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on Your precepts
And [f]regard Your ways.
16 I shall [g]delight in Your statutes;
I shall not forget Your word.

How shall a young man direct his way?

Reading: Proverbs 4
Text: Psalm 119:1-16

1. The natural inclination towards sin.
2. The need for a purified heart.
3. Living according to God’s word.

What the Westminster Confession of Faith says about the usefulness of God’s law is a reflection of what the Scripture says and especially Psalm 119 which is a study in the excellence of God’s law. It reminds us that the law has great value for every believer in matters of obedience, Christian duty, godly sincerity, living in the presence of God, acknowledging his mercy, in short it goes on as it begins in setting out the way of blessing according to the law of God.

The 119th Psalm is beautifully structured in 22 parts according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The structure enhancing the overall theme; that being the psalmists love for the law of God; a love which the Psalmist hopes will also be acknowledged and felt by whoever reads and believes it.

As we’ve just read the first two sections do you also feel what the Psalmist does blessed by the law of God? Do you derive comfort from it? Do you seek to order your life according to the word of God, do you value it more than money, do you strive to keep God’s commands?

Now the text I have picked singles out young men. The Psalmist himself doesn’t say exactly why young men are singled out but even so there are good biblical reasons. One is that that young men are by God’s design called to be spiritual leaders in the family and the church. That doesn’t mean that they are the only ones who lead their wives and women in the church to provide leadership in all kinds of ways but God expects men to take up the mantle whether they feel like it or not.

Another reason young men are singled out is is that if they are going to be good leaders then the best time to establish biblical patterns of living is when you are young. Conversely the longer bad habits are left the more entrenched they become! Someone once compared keeping bad habits to making a cable. Every day you add a strand and before you know it that bad habit becomes like a thick cable which is almost impossible to break. Hence the exhortation for the youth to establish godly habits early. It may be a case of now or never.

But of course just because the psalm addresses young men doesn’t mean that it has no relevance for the rest of us. We are all young in the sense that our usual lifespan, of around 80yrs is a mere dot on the continuum of eternity. Its also true that we are all young in terms of sanctification, at least according to the Heidelberg catechism LD 44 Q&A 114 which say that “In this life even the holiest have only the mere beginnings of true obedience” And sure, not all of you are men but while the Bible usually uses the masculine gender it often does so in a representative sense ie. recognising representative headship but including the whole household of faith.

So this verse, while it addresses the young man it is relevant for all of us.

At any rate the text says “how can a young man keep his way pure, by living according to your word.”

Well look at it in three parts this evening first the verse is written on the assumption that everyone has a natural inclination towards sin and that he needs purification.

Ever since the fall into sin the imagination of sinful mans heart has been evil from his youth. For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing as Job 14:4 says. That sounds very much like Jesus words in Mark 7:21 “For from within, out of a man’s heart come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice and deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.” And so young people as they mature from the relative innocence of childhood begin to feel the human passions and inclinations to sin which are common to us all but can be particularly sharp in ones youth.

Couple that with youthful exuberance. When you are young, death and judgment seem a long way off. When you are middle aged or older it’s a bit closer and you realise that you’re not so invincible anymore. But when you are young there’s a tendency to behave as though you are invincible and along with that, the temptation to take risks, spiritually and physically.

And we may as well add lack of experience and knowledge. Youth are more likely to make errors in judgment, errors from which they might suffer later on. For example getting into a car with the wrong person, going against parental advice, forming relationships with the opposite sex without due care.

Now these may be the kind of things Job cringed about when he was reminded of them in Job 13:26 where he said “You write down bitter things against me and make me inherit the sins of my youth.”
David also lamented his early delinquencies in Psalm 25:7 where he said “remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways.” So apparently did Beza the great Swiss Reformer. He felt it so strongly about it that he mentioned in his will that it was a special mercy of God that he had been called out from the world, by the grace of God at the age of sixteen.

Ask any believer now and I’m sure that they’ll tell you the same thing. Oh that I could live my young days over again, I wish I hadn’t been so lazy, I could have achieved so much more. Or I wish I hadn’t have chased my own pleasure and leisure so much! Or I wish I had curbed my lustful thoughts and actions, or I wish I had listened more to my parents advice.
The sins of your youth invariably come back to trouble you.

So, there is that indwelling sin exacerbated by youthful passions, a sense of invincibility a lack of knowledge and experience and the lure of the world around that so often seems so exciting and so attractive and which caused David later on in life to say “remember not the sins of my youth.

2. That leads me to the second thing the need for a purified heart

The psalmist asks the question, how can a young man keep his way pure? How can sin and its terrible consequences, both in this life and the next be avoided. How can the young full of hot passions, limited in knowledge and experience get it right and keep it right?

It is first and foremost a matter of the heart. Verse 10 says “I seek you with all my heart” and verse 11 “I have hidden your word in my heart.” It begins with the heart.

In the Bible the word heart is used variously to describe the intellect the emotions and the will, the three components of true faith. As such it goes to the core of one’s soul.

That means for a young person, any person to be able to start keeping his way pure and ordering his or her life according to the word of God there must be this early heart commitment to God. Even if you have been brought up in a Christian home everyone must at some point in your life make that heart commitment to the Lord Jesus. Everyone must at some point, sooner rather than later, own the vows their parents made at their baptism.
There must be this personal heart commitment to the Lord Jesus because you see it is only by faith in Jesus that any of us are cleansed from sin, original sin, the sins of our youth, our sinful disposition, all our sins.

But we should also remember that when you do make such a commitment,… behind that is the faithfulness of God and the outworking of God’s promise given at baptism I will be your God you are my child. Behand everyone’s commitment is God’s saving grace.
Nevertheless,… there must come a point in time in everyone’s life when every believer like for example the prophet Elijah must say “My God is Yahweh” or like Joshua, “as for me and my household we will serve the Lord!” and as those on whom God’s spirit is poured they will say “I am the Lord’s” and another will write on his hand “Belonging to the Lord.”
Its no good just going along for the family’s sake or for your friend’s sake or for custom’s sake. Go for the Lord’s sake.

Let there be a personal heart commitment.
Like David in Psalm 51:1 “have mercy on me O God according to your unfailing love,….(vs 10) create in me a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Jesus also taught his disciples the necessity of committing their lives to Him when he said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father except through me.”
And then, when you do believe and you do make that commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ as the disciples eventually did, Jesus says to you “you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you, remain in me and I will remain in you. (Jn. 15:3&4)

So the question “how shall a young man cleanse his way” is a matter of the
heart. Have you in your mind accepted Christ as savior and Lord of your life? Do
you trust that his sacrifice on the cross has paid for your sins? Are you willing to
follow him as Lord?

3. Once those basic questions are answered in the affirmative then you can start thinking about the next step, (and this is my third point) living according to God’s word.
In John chapter 8 you’ll find a story about a woman caught in adultery. First her heart needed to be purified through the forgiveness of sins. Jesus said to her “does anyone condemn you?” and she said, “No-one Lord!” And then Jesus said, “neither do I” after which He said, “go and sin no more!” So, are your sins forgiven then, to put it into the inspired words of the Psalm, “live according to God’s word.”

According to the Psalm that means a number of things.

First it means being a serious student of God’s word. In the words of the Psalmist and the passage we’ve just read that involves “seeking God with all your hearts, observing his statutes looking upon all God’s commandments, (and you can’t do that unless you actually study them!) being willing to be taught by God’s word. It is easy to read the Bible in a haphazard or cursory manner, but you get little out of it that way. You could read the Bible that way all your life and still end up have very little Bible knowledge. The Bible itself recommends a somewhat more diligent approach such as searching matters out and memorizing scripture in order to grow in the word. I could suggest a couple of ways of doing that. One is attending your local midweek Bible study group.
Reading the Bible alongside a good systematic theology is also valuable.
Studying whole book of the Bible with the help of a good commentary or two is good too.

The benefits of such in depth study are invaluable. Godly people who know their Bibles are of great benefit to their family church and their community. In this day and age one major cause for the churches decline is that men especially have abrogated their duties in that regard. Jeremiah’s lament was “my people perish because they do not know me!” That is just as true today people perish because they do not know God. They do not know his plan of salvation. They do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and they do not know God’s will for their lives. And young men especially need to learn and know. They need to be serious students of God’s word. You need to read good theology in order to prepare yourselves for the responsibilities God places on you and to prepare yourselves for kingdom service.

Learn from the Bible. Learn from other godly people especially your parents who know you better than anyone else. Proverbs 1:8 makes that point where it says. Listen to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mothers teaching. Listen to the voice of wisdom and experience. It can only add to your blessings.

So study the word accept advice and then act on it. Theology is all too often abused in that it is debated in fine detail but the principles not practiced. How can a young man keep his way pure? By storing up the word merely to debate the word and argue the finer points of doctrine? No, by living according to God’s word!
And living according to God’s word involves breaking off with every known sin, no matter how small. Examine your hearts. Is their any habit you have which you know is wrong in the sight of God? Put a stop to it! As they say a small leak will sink a large ship a little spark will start a devastating fire, so too a little sin can develop into more and more sin which can ruin your soul. Israel was commanded to kill every Canaanite in the land they were to possess. Act on the same principle. Show no mercy to sin in your life.

As well as that avoid any thing that might tempt you to sin. Keep it at a safe distance. Be careful how you spend your time, where you go, what you look at. There is nothing wrong with the internet per se. It’s a wonderful piece of technology but it only takes one press of the wrong button on your screen in the privacy of your room for your mind to be flooded with sinful images. Avoid it like the plague. That goes for movies too. Avoid worldly amusements that can sow the seeds of sensuality which Satan uses to destroy faith. And remember the eye of God sees everything. He is everywhere in every room, lit up or dark, whether you are alone, or in a crowd. The eye of God is always upon you. We have an all seeing God. Remember the vision that God gave Ezekiel with the wheels with rims full of eyes able to move in every direction. Remember Psalm 91 God who watches over you and who neither sleeps nor slumbers. And Proverbs 15:3 also says “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere they read hearts as well as actions.” Lock your door, draw down your blinds, close your curtains, turn off your lights, it makes no difference. All things are uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

So how shall a young man keep his way pure? I would also add be diligent in the use of the means of grace. Be regular in church attendance and keeping the Lord’s day. It belongs to God and is grace to you. But please don’t keep it as a legalist but keep it because you see attendance to the means of grace out of thankfulness and because you know that that it strengthens and equips you for service in God’s kingdom and in your vocation whatever that may be.

And last but not least Pray! Without prayer we are dead in the sight of God. How can you have a real relationship with God the Father and never communicate with him. God communicates with us through his word, through his Son, through his providential actions in our lives, through illumination and so we must communicate with him through prayer. In fact according to 1 Thessalonian 5: 17 we are commanded to God without ceasing. Prayer is a mark of having God as your Father. Prayer is a way of gaining strength through the Holy Spirit whereby we are able to resist the lure of the world, the lust of the flesh and the temptations of the devil. Prayer is a way whereby we imitate the Lord Jesus Christ who was also constantly in prayer.

There is much more I can say but the point is clear “How can a young man cleanse his way First be aware of the natural inclination towards sin, secondly let your hearts be purified through faith in Christ. Only Christ can deal adequately with sin and then live
according to God’s word. Amen.