I'd like to consider just a verse or a verse and a half this afternoon. It's found in Psalm 119, and it's a question. It's verse 9. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By, here's the answer, taking heed thereto according to thy word. That word wherewithal is an old-fashioned word, it means a bit more than how, it means what will be the means, the money, or the means, the method, how shall a young man cleanse his way? It's a vital question. There's some questions in life that are unimportant, This is not one of them, this is important. How shall I be cleansed in my way? It's an important question. It indicates that before we come to Christ, we have a cleanliness problem. That sounds impolite. A cleanliness problem. When I was a young colleague, I was approached by a couple of other colleagues and I was asked to approach another colleague to say, you have a cleanliness problem. If you've ever had to do that, a personal hygiene problem, it's not something that you would put your name for. But for some reason I was asked, probably I was the youngest and the quietest, and I was asked to go and speak to this young person and to say to them that they needed to wash more. Well, I did it graciously as I could and the problem did get better. But really this is not about personal hygiene, this is the hygiene of the heart. How shall a young man cleanse his way? Have you heard that expression? Cleanliness is next to godliness. I used to think that that was a slogan made up by Unilever or one of the soap manufacturers, but apparently it was first used by John Wesley in 1778 in a sermon. He was of the conviction that to have some order and cleanliness to the outside was a good start. It wasn't a substitute for the heart, but it was a good start to understanding of the needs of the heart. Of course, the Israelites in the Old Testament, they were given many laws, washings, cleanliness laws that they had to follow. They couldn't eat until they'd washed their hands and other parts. And so we see here a picture of what needs to happen within and sometimes the washing on the outside is an illustration of what needs to happen, how to address this vital problem. So here's the question. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? I want to say five things this afternoon. A personal way. A personal way. What does the psalmist mean? Cleansing his way. Our way in the Bible, it's a word used very many times. Our path, our way is the actions The choices, the thoughts, the desires, the likes, the follows, that we each make. And those create our way. Each of them are a series of choices. You have made friends. You have made choices. You have liked certain things and followed certain things. You've had thoughts. And all those together, added up, create your way. They define the code that you have written. In computer terms, it's binary code, 1 and 0. You've said yes to some things, no to others. The problem is, for me and for you, that code is not clean. That code that we've each individually written, it's not clean in God's eyes. It's an unclean code and it represents the way that we have chosen to take. Nobody else is responsible for it but me and you, our choices, things we've looked at, things we've read by choice. Well, Can we opt out? Can we outsource our soul to somebody else and say, can you take care of that? When somebody gets elderly, some of you will have had this experience, or maybe not elderly but unable, You can sign a power of attorney. It's usually a number of pieces of paper. It has to be witnessed and registered. But you can outsource the responsibilities for your life, for your bank account, for the key decisions in life. When you lose capacity, you can give that responsibility to somebody else. They can become your attorney. You give the powers of attorney to a solicitor, a friend, or to a relative. But when it comes to your soul, nobody has that power. You are responsible for the code that you've written, And that code needs to be cleansed. So a personal way. But it says here, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way. We have a personal way and we have a personal need. It needs to be cleansed. This is the most important issue for humanity. For everybody here this afternoon, if you've never professed faith in Jesus Christ, if you have not had your way cleansed, then this is the issue that separates you from heaven, you from God, and if you ignore this question, you will carry around the code that you've created for the rest of your life. And that code creates guilt. Because you know what you've done, I know what I've done, said, thought, and what I've been. And until I've been cleansed, until that guilt has been taken away, I will wear that guilt. I will bear that burden. And so this is the central issue, to be cleansed. Wherewithal shall a young person or an old person or any person cleanse his way? That sin needs to be blotted out, needs to be taken away. The mark, the stain needs to be removed. Well, people have different ways of doing this. Some people choose to ignore the problem. They choose to take on a distraction, to find some other way of having peace and enjoyment and having that pleasure that they desire. King Solomon, a long time ago, he set out on a series of experiments There is at least seven recorded in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. The first one he tried was laughter. There's nothing wrong with laughter. It's a gift of God. But when you seek laughter and you joke through life, And there's never really a serious thought or a serious word. That's a great shame. Because there are serious things in life. Solomon said, I said in my heart, go to now, I will prove thee with mirth. Laughter. But the fun stopped. The laughter was ended. And he wasn't satisfied. So he moved on to something else. The second thing he tried was drink, wine. He became a sommelier. I think that's the term. A wine aficionado. And he thought, well maybe that will give me pleasure. Let me turn to the bottle, turn to the drink, even in a sophisticated way. Maybe that will fill the hole. It will distract me from this cleanliness problem that I have deep within. But that didn't work. We turn to a third one. He started to engage in building projects. He started some major construction. Houses, gardens, palaces, orchards. He mapped them all out. Maybe, maybe that will give me what I'm looking for. It will be the distraction that I need from this great problem within. But that didn't work. There was a fourth one. decided in his already great wealth that he would seek to become even wealthier. It's a sad fact, isn't it? That some of the wealthiest people in the world have the most miserable and unhappy lives. And Solomon found that silver, gold, treasures from many other kingdoms, they didn't cause happiness either. Material things can't. The fifth thing he tried was entertainment and music. He became a composer. He started to invite performers to the palace in an attempt to find joy through the arts and many do that today. If only I can drown out with music and entertainment and theater and film and all those things, not all necessarily bad. but they will never fill the hole and they'll never cleanse the soul. Well, then there was a sixth thing. These are all things that people try today. They are not old, they are new. Ever new and ever tried. The sixth thing was companionship. If only I have a new set of friends. If I invite more people to feast in the palace, Solomon thought, large social gatherings, parties, pleasure, more, more, more nights out. And that didn't work. Young people, if you grow up, you will be tempted by all of these things because there's nothing new under the sun. The final one that Solomon tried, Ecclesiastes 2 verses 9 and 10, was he thought that if he could look at his successes, his achievements, the things that he had done in life, his kingdom and his empire, and all his accomplishments, Maybe he could create a legacy, people use that term today, and really it's just hiding what they have accumulated in life, their need for cleansing. But the only way, the only way, the Bible says it, it's so clear, the only way we can be cleansed is with the Lord Jesus Christ and his precious blood. there is only one atonement. The Gospel is so clear. One way, one truth, one life, one blood, one sacrifice, one saviour, one Lord. So we have a need for cleansing. If we look at the second part of this verse, how do we find out about the Lord Jesus Christ? How do we find the way? By taking heed. Here's this personal God. This God who speaks into our hearts and lives, not in the way that the chief executive does on a Friday afternoon, the company-wide email, usually burying bad news, impersonal, No, God speaks directly. And if you sense this afternoon that God is speaking to you, that you have a cleanliness problem, then take heed. Be very careful. God does not speak to individuals forever. You ignore him, you push him to one side, You allow yourself voluntarily to get distracted by one of those seven things or more, well, he may not continue to speak to you. You need to take heed. Be very careful. Be very thoughtful. The God of heaven is speaking to me through his word and I need to listen to him. I don't know how long I've got. I don't know whether God will speak again to my soul. And so he comes and he speaks. He speaks like a mirror, showing me what I'm like, unclean. He speaks like a two-edged sword, sharp, piercing, cutting the conscience, making me feel uncomfortable. because only I know what I've done and said. He speaks like a light, a light to warm, a light to reveal, a light to show our need of Christ, that we have this cleanliness problem. If he speaks to you, don't ignore it. Don't just carry on Don't go through the rest of this year like last year and the year before pretending that you are clean when you know that you're not clean. Then this says in the next verse, verse 10, that having recognized that we have a personal way and a personal need and a personal God who speaks to us, well, there is a personal seeking. With my whole heart have I sought Thee. How do we know about God? Well, through His Word, when He speaks to us. When we sense our need, Our need of cleansing, we go to His Word and we find out all about Him. And when we find out about this Saviour, who reveals Himself to all who desire, well then we seek Him. Seek Him spasmodically? No. Seek Him superficially? No. Seek Him while carrying on with our life as it was? No. but with my whole heart, single-minded, a pursuit where nothing else matters. For a time we push everything to one side and with my whole heart have I sought Thee, my personal God. I've come to see my need. I've come to know that I must be cleansed. I've come to see that nothing else matters. And I've come to seek God. How do I seek Him? Well, I go to His Word. I approach Him in the way that He must be approached. Sincerely, earnestly, putting my sin to one side and turning from it with genuine repentance, turning to God and giving Him our affection, our love, our life, our hopes, our aspirations, putting our faith and trust in Him with my whole heart. Have you done that? Is there somebody here this afternoon? Maybe you've been interested. You know you've got a cleanliness problem. And you know the answer deep down, but you've been half-hearted. You've kept something back. Oh, I would become a Christian if... You've put conditions. You've said if I can keep this and keep that. No, with my whole heart. Unreserved. Unconditional. We need to seek the Lord. We need to turn to Him. But there's a fifth, personal. a personal savior. Notice it says, with my whole heart. Have I. We have two people being baptized this afternoon. They don't come because their parents are Christians, though they are. They don't come because their grandparents, some of them are Christians. or their great-grandparents know there needed to be a time when they could say with my whole heart, have I sought thee. This is personal. There are three personal pronouns in verse 10. My, I and me. It's no good relying upon a parent, a relative, a friend, there's no power of attorney for your soul. It must be you that come, you that seek, you that turn, you that trust, you that call upon the Lord for salvation. How can you be cleansed? Well, you need to know you have a problem. You need to know your code is corrupted with sin. You need to come to God's Word or to a sermon or to someone that can help you and show the way of God and the Word of God and then take heed very carefully, very thoughtfully, not in a flippant way, Then with your whole heart seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Only his precious blood. Why his blood? Because it was perfect. Because that blood came from the only perfect human being who gave his life who shed his blood instead of you, bearing the punishment for your sin. He willingly, gladly stood in the place of his people and took their condemnation. For Josh and for Caitlin this afternoon, they've come to know the truth of that verse in Romans. that they now fear no condemnation because they are in Christ. I urge you this afternoon, you have a personal way. No one else is responsible for what you have done. You have a personal need of cleansing. You have a personal God who speaks to you and you can go to Him There needs to be a personal seeking, then you can have not a family saviour, not a friend who you know who has a saviour, but your own personal Lord and saviour. Do you know Him? Do you know Jesus Christ with my whole heart? Have I sought Thee? O let me not wander from Thy commandments. Well, may the Lord help us to understand these things. Wherewithal shall a young person, what's the means to be cleansed? Ah, by taking heed to God's Word and seeking Him with our whole heart. And if you do that, I can assure you, He will be found and you can know Him as your Lord and as