In most of your laps lies the most precious book in the world as you've just heard from our sermonette. By the way, we did not collaborate on this sermon. In a sense we both thought of the topic the same, we talked about it. He said, "Oh by the way I'm giving this" and I said, "Well, that's funny, that's what I was going to give it on too." So I said, "Whatever you give is no problem because I'll add to it."

In speech club many times, the question would be asked, "If you had to leave immediately and you could only take one item with you, what would it be?" If you had to leave your home immediately, and you could only take one item with you, what would it be? Many people would say the Bible. I'll take the Bible with me. Some of course might say your purse or whatever, but what would you take if you could only take one other item with you? Many would say, "I'll take the Bible." Many have responded that way and why would it be? Because the Bible is precious. The Bible contains words of life. Notice John 6:63 what Jesus Christ said:

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

So what is on your lap and what is in my hand contains the words of life for you and most people want to live and not die. We had 2 Timothy 3:15-16, I'll just rehearse this I know it was read already. The Bible contains the words of God.  You could look on it as was very aptly brought out by Mr. Phelps, that the Scriptures are God breathed. God inspired them; He inspired them through 40 different authors over a period of 1500 years, most of them never met each other or knew each other, they came from different economic backgrounds, different political systems, different ideologies as far as what was being in the country of their origin. Different situation – some were slaves, some were kings, some were prophets, some were disciples, some were carpenters and fishermen but the all write with such singular unity that you've got that Bible in front of you, inspired by God through the personalities of those individuals but inspired by God. He says in verse 15

2 Timothy 3:15 And from a child you have known the Holy Scriptures,…the only thing they had at that time was the Old Testament, we extend that to the whole Bible….. the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus….The Bible contains the way to salvation. The Bible contains the words of life.

I want to share with you a few quotes, I hope you'll bear with me. I think they're awesome quotes. Do you know that William Tindale was burned at the stake because he translated the Bible into English? Let me read it from the Wikipedia, it says,

"William Tyndale (sometimes spelled Tynsdale, Tindall, Tindill, Tyndall; c. 1494–1536...that looks like about 42 years...) was an English scholar who became a leading figure in Protestant reform in the years leading up to his execution. He is well known for his translation of the Bible into English…..skipping down the paragraph... Tyndale's translation was the first English Bible to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, the first English one to take advantage of the printing press, and first of the new English Bibles of the Reformation…..  In 1535, Tyndale was arrested and jailed in the castle of Vilvoorde (Filford) outside Brussels for over a year. In 1536 he was convicted of heresy and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake…."

Interesting it says, "One estimate suggests the New Testament in the King James Version is 83% Tyndale's, and the Old Testament 76%"……But he was burned at the stake because he translated the Bible into English. Many people were threatened with death to even own a Bible in the days of Diocletian in the Roman Empire. If you had a portion of the Scriptures and you were found with them, you would be put to death. He felt that he could stamp out the Bible by getting people to surrender their Scriptures rather than die, but they didn't win.

Let me share with you another quote. It's about the Waldensian Christians and the Bible.

Waldensian Christians sometimes traveled about as merchants and dealt in jewels and precious stones as a way of obtaining access to families of nobility. When they had disposed of their rings and trinkets and were asked if they had anything more to sell, they answered, "Yes, we have jewels still more precious than any you've seen. We will be glad to show you those if you promise not to betray us. We have here a precious stone so brilliant that by its light a man may see God, and another which radiates such a fire that it rekindles the love of God in the heart of the possessor.  Then unwrapping their bundle, they brought forth a Bible. The most precious of all precious stones for by its light a person sees and finds God.

The title of this sermon is The Most Precious Book,

I want to read to you another one. How precious was the Bible? Here's how precious it was – The pony express, that one by the way came from 15,000 Quotes by Lee Tan, this is another one, #771 in case you want to check me out. The other one was #776. #771 –

" The pony express was a thrilling part of the American history. It ran from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacremento, California a distance of 1,900 miles.  The trip was made in 10 days. 40 men each riding 50 miles a day dashed along the trail on 500 of the best horses the west could provide. To conserve weight clothing was very light. Saddles were extremely small and thin and no weapons were carried. The horses themselves wore small shoes or none at all. The mail pouches were flat and very conservative in size. Letters had to be written on thin paper and postage was $5 an ounce which in those days was an enormous sum, yet each rider carried a full sized Bible. It was presented to him when he joined the Pony Express and he took it with him despite all the scrupulous weight precautions."

...Everything else they skimped on; they were not about to skimp on the Bible.

I'm going to share with you some quotes about what some individuals think about the Bible. Charles Dickenson said this, "The New Testament"…Charles Dickenson quite a writer, Charles Dickens rather, quite a writer,

"The New Testament is the very best book that was ever, that was or ever will be known in the world." Abraham Lincoln said this, "I believe the Bible is the best gift that God has ever given to man."

Horace Greeley said this,

"It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible reading people."  

And of all people, General Douglas MacArthur, known for his battles and war, here's what he said,

"Believe me sir, never a night goes by, be I ever so tired but I read the word of God before I go to bed."

How precious is the Bible to you? I want to read one more quote to you. Dr. William Lyon Phelps, one of Yale University's most distinguished professors, comes from #60 of 15,000 Quotes said,

"I would rather have a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures than a college education."

His knowledge of the Scripture enhanced his view of God and thus influenced his life.

What does the Bible mean to you? How precious is it to you? First of all it is the standard by which we will all be judged.

Matthew 12:37 Jesus Christ said, "The words that I speak they're the ones that will judge you."...You will be judged by the word of God; it behooves us to know what's in it.

James 2:12, let me quote this Scripture to you:

James 2:12 So speak and so do as they who will be judged by the law of liberty.

Where's the law of liberty found? In the Bible. The word of God, how important is it that we know the Bible? It's vital that we know the Bible. And you students, the new students that have come and the alumni who are here, you'll be given a very good knowledge of the Scriptures. You'll have the opportunity, you'll be given all kinds of handouts, you'll be given all kinds of notes. They'll probably last you for years and years of study because you won't be able to consume it all in one nine month period. But you will be given instruction from the word of God covering the word of God from Genesis to Revelation. We will touch on every book in the Bible, some more thoroughly. The books that are shorter we have more time to go through each verse, others of them we'll pick out the highlights and encourage you to read the rest. So you'll have your hands on the word of God, you'll be going through it verse by verse in many cases. Chapter by chapter in many cases, you will come to have in your knowledge and in your possession and in your mind and in your heart the precious word of God.  Let's see why the book should be so precious to each one of us.

First of all, I have 7 points so you can gauge how fast the sermon's going, when it's going to be over  by when I reach 6 or 7  you'll know it's pretty much getting ready to the end.

#1 The book is precious because it helps us to grow in knowledge.

Now the Bible says men will run to and fro and knowledge will be increased and how much has knowledge been increased? I had a quote, see if I can find it here, and how much knowledge there is in the world.  Oh yeah. This is just the most recent one as of 2012 the amount of knowledge globally, 2.7 zeta-bytes of knowledge. Now how much is a zetabyte? It is a 1 with 21 0's after it. Now I don't know if you'd call that a septillion or what.  Twenty one 0's after it. Now one byte, one byte is equal to a character and 10 bytes are equal to a word. So, you take 10 into that and you'll know how many words there are. I have another quote from a few years back that I'll share with you that might make it a little more interesting and more revelent. It says, "Every 60 seconds,…it's probably fewer seconds than that now…"more than 2,000 typed pages are added to man's knowledge." Every minute, two thousand pages, more than that. If you were to just take what was produced in 24 hours, it would take you five years to read what was produced in 24 hours and that just keeps escalating. It's more than that now. It's more than that, more of that information just keeps dumping out so what are we talking about? There's a book called, How To Know More and More About Less and Less and what it tells you all the insignificant details; things like Mr. Myers gives you when he gives you his jokes. I will admit, I like those jokes. I know some people don't like them but I like his, I get them and I appreciate them anyway. But how to know more and more about less and less – is that what you want to do? There's a ton of knowledge in the world. There's lots of knowledge in the world but that's the knowledge you don't want. Knowledge you want is you want the knowledge that is precious and true. When Leonard Nymeyer came here, at that time the oldest one to attend ABC at 67 years old, he was surpassed by 72 and then an 80 year old we had here attending. But when Mr. Nymeyer was here he said, "Everything I've ever learned in the construction field, everything that I ever learned in college about building is all obsolete." But he said, "What I learn at ABC will never become obsolete." God's word stands fast for ever and ever and if you want something that's absolutely true you follow the Bible because God says, "Thy word is truth" and that's where you're going to get it. Hosea 4:6 tells us, quickly go there – give you a negative side of it.

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…..but knowledge is increasing all along…..because you have rejected knowledge I will also reject you that you shall be no priests to me…talks to the priests…seeing you have forgotten the law of  your God I will also forget your children.

See, it wasn't that knowledge was being hindered, it was Bible knowledge that was being hindered. Let me read to you a couple of quote from, about the Bible in the early days.  Did you know that Harvard had Christ centered rules? Here's what their Christ centered rules were in 1646 and they were adopted back then:

Everyone shall consider the main end of his life and studies (this is at Harvard) to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life. Everyone at this campus should know God, consider that the main reason for their studies.

Seeing the Lord gives wisdom, everyone shall seriously by prayer in secret seek wisdom of Him. Prayer.

Everyone shall exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that they be ready to give an account of their proficiency therein both in theoretical observations of languages and logic and in practical and spiritual truths. That was how Harvard was founded and as a result it said 52% of their graduates in the 17th century became ministers.

Our early schools were established in Massachusetts and what they required was it said, "One chief, it said among other things the ordinance required at least one qualified teacher for every fifty householders and a grammar school in every town of more than 100." It also put the Bible at the center of its curriculum asserting that it is one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, is to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures. What Satan would have you do is become so busy with everything else that you forget the Bible. That you forget to look into it, that you forget to read it. 

Let me read you one more and then I'll stop with these and get to the other points.  Martin Luther said this; Martin Luther warned,

"I am much afraid that the universities will provide, will prove to be the great gates to hell unless they diligently labor to explain the Holy Scriptures and to engrave them upon the hearts of the youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution where men are not unceasingly occupied with the word of God must become corrupt." 

How important was it to him for people to study the Bible – to have the Bible? And you have the opportunity, you who are coming and all of us as brethren have the opportunity. We have a precious book in our hands. So #1 – We study it to grow in knowledge and Peter said:

2 Peter 3:18 Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ …..

Growing in grace and in knowledge. Knowledge and grace – you need grace to be able to handle the knowledge and grace is how you handle it, what you do with it, how you use it.  So the first point is – the precious book helps us grow in knowledge.

#2 The book is precious because it enables us to know God and to hear Him.

John 10:3-4  He said,... "My people, my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me."... Studying the Bible helps us to know the will of God, helps us to know who He is and in fact, John 10:27 talks about the great Shepherd, He said:

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

As was brought out in the sermonette, that we study the Bible, we read the Bible to get to know our Heavenly Father and our Elder Brother to be, Jesus Christ. We study the Bible that we may understand and know them. It's a blessing – it's what the Bible is for.

1John 2:3-4 In fact if anybody says, "I know Him" and doesn't keep His commandments……Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments…But if we aren't reading the Bible how can we know what they are? How can we understand what the commandments are that we're supposed to follow….. 4 He who says, "I know Him," and keeps not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

So again, studying the Bible helps us to know God, and John in his gospel, John 5:39 says search the Scriptures.

John 5:39 We read this....You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. ... The Scriptures help you to know Jesus Christ, the Scriptures help you to know God the Father, the Scriptures help you to know the will of God for you. 

Second point – why is it so precious? We  know what He's like, we see His example, we see how He handled issues, how He handled circumstances and we can learn to follow those.

#3 The third reason why the Bible is precious, ought to be precious to you.  The book shows us how to live His way. We get direction from the Bible. 

Direction so that we can walk down the narrow path, find that gate, enter that gate and go down that narrow path and not go the broad way to destruction.  God's word provides a means to know how to live His way.  In Psalms 119:105, and by the way only 3 or 4 verses in all of Psalms 119 don't have something to do with the word of God.

Psalm 119:105 Thy word…, Your word God… is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

You want to be able to walk with confidence in life?  You want to be able to walk through the minefields of life? Have the word of God in front of you. It guides you – read it, study it, know it.  Now our students when they first come are of various ages. We understand we have some older, we have some younger, we have some that are new at the Bible, we have some that know the Bible fairly well already, but we have many that do not know where to find it in the Bible.  It's in the Bible somewhere, and before the year is up you'll see amazing changes among you.  Amazing changes where you'll stand up and say , "Here's where this is, here's where I can find that.'' In fact I challenge you; I'll put two or three Scriptures up, I think two Scriptures up a day, or is it four?  Four Scriptures up every week and challenge you to know those by the end of the week and give you a quiz on them. Basic Scriptures that you  know. What Scriptures do you need to know - the Scriptures that verify and substantiate and defend your faith. Not Scriptures that everybody accepts as far as the concepts in them, but Scriptures that help defend your faith. Our students will know that and I'm so pleased with them by the time the year goes on they work together to defend their faith on certain what I call, what am I's for comparative religion and by the time that year is part way through they're already standing up there defending their faith with the Bible. It is amazing, knowing your Bible is really important but we'll talk about more than just knowing it, we've got to live it as well.  You see Psalms talks about a lamp to our feet but Proverbs 14:12 you know the Frank Sinatra song, I Did It My way. Maybe you don't know it, who was Frank Sinatra? He was a crooner, he was a singer, go on Sirius radio, I don't know what number it is they have a whole Frank Sinatra section there on Siruis radio and you can hear him sing.  But he sang, "I did it my way" you know, I took the blows and I did it my way. Well, God wants you to not do it your way, He wants you to do it His way and Proverbs 14:12 tells you why.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man…seems right, not wrong but leads to death….., but the end thereof are the ways of death…..So God doesn't want you to do it your way, He wants you to do it His way and we find that in Psalm 25:4-5. We even sing this Psalm.

Psalm 25:4-5 Show me Thy ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths….Now .where do we learn from them?... 5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me….lead me in your Bible, lead me in your word, lead me to understand….., For You are the God of my salvation; in You I wait all the day…..Show me your ways, teach me your truth – where's truth found? Jesus Christ said in John 17:17, Thy word is truth.  Where is truth found? In the word of God - regarding salvation, regarding many key issues of life regarding moral issues of life. Study the word of God, it leads us and keeps us in His way.

#4 We should read the word of God – this precious book because it provides comfort and inspiration.

When you study the word of God there's a calmness that comes over you, because it cleanses and it nourishes and it strengthens. 2 Timothy 3:16 talks about inspiration, all Scripture is given by inspiration, we read it before, let's notice that aspect of it.

2 Timothy 3:16-17  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, …its got God's inspiration in there and as you read it, whether it's a story or it's a Scripture it provides you with inspiration. It's motivational, it gives you reason, it gives you that guidance and help…. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,… …teaching you the truth, for showing where you might be wrong, for setting things right and for teaching you how to do it in righteousness and why? Verse 17... 17 that the man of God may be …perfect…complete, thoroughly furnished to all good work….Ready to do everything that he needs to do. Romans 15:4 you can also study the Scriptures and receive from them comfort. If you're down in the dumps, not feeling good – read the Scriptures. They provide comfort. Gone through trials? Gone through difficulties? Read the Scriptures, they provide comfort.

Romans 15:4 So, whatever things were written before time were written for our learning….All for us – for our learning….that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope….God's word shows us the way out; God's word shows us that we can make it; God's word shows us there's reason to hope. God's word gives us guidance. God's word gives us solace and comfort. How precious is that in a world filled with trials and difficulties?

#5 This precious book aids us in building faith.

Many times people say, "I wish I had more faith, if I just had more faith." As you study the word of God it will help you have faith. It's a faith builder; that's why it's precious because many times we walk not seeing where we are going. Isn't that what the Scripture says? We walk by faith and not by sight. Sometimes we just have to launch forth. Sometimes we just have to step out. That's the only way we can do it and sometimes doing it on faith because we don't see the answer yet. I mean we're all on the road to eternal life; we're all on the road to the kingdom of God. Have you seen the kingdom yet? I've not seen it yet, I've seen Disney kingdom, but I've not seen the kingdom. Have you seen the kingdom? I've not seen the kingdom. That is something we have not yet seen and we go to the Feast of Tabernacles and we try to picture and imagine that this is what the kingdom is going to be like but we've never seen the kingdom. Yet that's your number one goal, so it takes faith. It takes faith to step out and do what you know is right. In some cases stepping out and doing what's right adds to your understanding. Remember the Scripture in:

Psalms 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all they that do His commandments.

Sometimes you say, "Well, it's right to do. That's what I'm going to do it. God says to do it and I'm going to do it.  Sometimes I don't see why I should do that but I'm going to do it anyway," and as you do it you come to understand it better. Reading the word of God, having the word of God is a faith builder. Romans 10:17 a few pages back from where we were before we read this:

Romans 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing,…hearing what? As you hear the word of God spoken to you or as you read it through your minds eye so...So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God….It's the word of God that guides us and helps us with faith. In Acts 17:11-12, I'm doing good on time. I look up at the time, I'm trying to finish barely after 4 if I can.

Acts 17:10-12 And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. Who coming there went went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica,…they found them to be more honorable people, why?.... in that they received the word with all readiness of mind…and back then you couldn't always check out the Scriptures. Most people didn't come to the synagogue with a whole Bible in their hands. They didn't have a Bible. They didn't come dragging all their scrolls, I wonder what sermon he's going to give today. Should I bring the scrolls of Isaiah, if they had them. They had to be pretty wealthy to have them. So they had to come and they had to listen intently. Maybe take notes on their papyrus or whatever they had. They had to take notes and then they had to go back and check and find where are those Scriptures. Who has them in town and can I go check them out and no chapters and verses, no chapters and verses? So he says in Psalms it is said, 150 Psalms to check out as we know them now, but notice what he says that these were more noble in that they received the word with all readiness of mind …. and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so….Their attitude was good; they weren't trying to prove them wrong but they were trying to see if they were right, so it was a positive approach… 12 Therefore many of them believed,….when your eyes see the Scriptures, I remember being an 18 year old sitting with my literature that my brother had left for me, I was beginning to study it and be called. I had the literature on my lap and I had the Bible on my lap and I said if this church is wrong, I'm going to prove it wrong, if this church is right I'm going to prove it right. I am going to check out every Scripture that is mentioned to make sure those Scriptures are correct in the Bible. I did. Every article that I read I checked the Scripture because I did not want to walk in a wrong way; I did not want to go down an incorrect path and every one that I found was correct. Once in a while there was a typo error, should have been 2 Samuel or whatever it was instead of 1 Samuel and that was excusable because I found it, but as far as checking them out I checked out what they quoted and what the Scripture said. Prove it out for yourself and then hold onto it, and believe it with all your might. Believe it from your head to your toes and don't change it unless someone can absolutely prove to you – see, how could I change Sabbath? Can somebody show me in the Bible where the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day of the week to the third? I'll keep Tuesday; Sabbath's on Tuesday brethren. Is it? Where do you find it? No, the seventh day is made holy, not the third day. Oh, you can prove out what you believe if you know the Bible – again it builds faith. These people studied and they believed.

#6 The book is precious because it gives us personal help. Personal help.

Hebrews 4:12 – I know we don't like to read that one too many times but it talks about… the word of God is quick, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword…. He could go shoop, shoop like some of these ads where they show up and they do their swords all over the place and then they stop, you know the karate guy or whatever and do their swords and they stop and everything falls off you know.  Cut them all in half, he's whittled them down; I like those kinds of things, but here the Bible talks about the word of God is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword……piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

God's word gives us personal help. How am I doing? As I look into the word of God do I look at it and say, "Hey this is for me. I'm not doing that; I need to do that, I need to change." And again it gives us personal help. Over in Psalm 119:59-60, I like this section. He says, David says, the Psalmist says:

Psalm 119:59-60 I thought on my ways and I turned my feet to your testimonies….I thought about the way that I was going and I turned my feet to your law, to your way. I don't want to go my way, I want to go your way, and in v. 60 he said…I made haste and delayed not to keep your commandments. …I looked at my ways and I said, "Ugh, ugh, I don't want to go that way anymore; I want to go God's way."

So the Bible is precious because it gives you personal help. See it's not in man to know how to direct his own steps; not toward eternal life, not toward eternal life. Oh they can direct their own steps to get to the moon, they can direct their own steps to put space stations in the sky and they can fly to them and fly back from them, but they don't know the way of life. They don't know the way to eternal life but notice Jeremiah 10:23.

Jeremiah 10:23 O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps.

So the Bible provides that guidebook. As we were traveling to Nebraska we had a triple failsafe system. I had my in-dash GPS, we got a TripTik, and I googled it. I wanted to make sure we knew where we were going because I hadn't driven to Nebraska in a long time. So, let's make sure we get there. If you want to know how you can get there, you need to have the Bible. It's your map, it's your GPS, it's your TripTik to eternal life. The precious word of God gives us personal help.

Proverbs 3:1-2 My son, forget not my law; but let your heart keep my commandments:…Why?... 2 For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to you….God's word provides personal help for us. To grow and to overcome we need to be able to see ourselves in the light of the Bible. We need to be able to turn away from sin, from breaking God's law which we discover from studying God's word.

#7 Why the Bible is precious – it helps us look to the future with hope. It helps us look to the future with hope.

If you didn't know there's a coming kingdom of God, if you didn't know that God has a plan of salvation for all people, would you be worried when nations are rattling their nuclear weapons at each other? Would you be worried to wonder what's going to happen to our country when they talk about all the potential cyber, not cyber attacks but terrorist attacks that could happen? Yes you would. You would be tramatized.  I remember my mother every time a plane flew low overhead at our house, "Mom, don't worry. Nobody's going to hurt you. Why? Because God has a plan and I know it." God has a plan; the Bible enables us to look to the future with hope. Matthew 24:3-4 Jesus Christ was asked about that.

Matthew 24:3-4 And as they sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world ? 4 And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no man deceive you….then He went on to describe what's going to happen before the end.

The book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ which we'll cover, students, in the second semester, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ given to the apostle John. But it's Christ's revelation about the end time so that we may know what to expect. Matthew 13:11 – can you understand what's going on? Can you understand books that many people consider mysterious and crazy? Can you read books and believe them that many say, "That's a myth, that's a fable"? Oh I'll read you something in a moment, but

Matthew 13:11, Matthew 13:16-17 He answered and said to them, Because it is given to you…They said,  "Why do you speak to them in parables?" He said "Because it is given to you…. to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. And going down to verse 16 …16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 17 For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.

You have a key to knowing the future, to having a hope for the future not just for you but for all of humankind, for your family. The prophecies of the kingdom, the prophecies that God is preparing a kingdom for us. Remember Luke 12:32.

Luke 12:32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

God has a kingdom; He says, "I'm preparing a place for you so that you can have a part in that kingdom."  If anyone asks you, "What's your goal in life anyway? What's your overall goal?" usually we would quote Matthew 6:33.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;…I can't impress enough that we can't do it our way. Students will hear me say many times this year, "We've got to become more like Jesus Christ and less like ourselves." We've got to become more like Jesus Christ and less like ourselves and as you grow as a Christian, as you grow in understanding you'll see and understand that. …But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness….not my own righteousness, not the good things that I can do often by myself, but the good things that I can do because God motivates and inspires it.  But he says, "seek first His kingdom". That's the future, that's solid, nobody can take it away from you. Only you can jump out and jump away. Keep your focus on that beautiful plan that God has. That's what makes the book precious.

I'm going to read one more quote to you, if you're not tired of them, it's the last one. #6942 same 15,000.

Certain clergyman was called by a church to become its pastor. Having been strongly influenced by critical scholars who downgrade portions of the Scriptures and myths, he himself doubted the authenticity of the Bible. But two years after his coming, the pastor visited one of his members who was very sick. When he learned that the man had terminal illness, he suggested that perhaps you would like me to read and pray for you. "Yes, "replied the man as he took his Bible and handed it to the minister. When the minister opened it he was somewhat shocked at what he saw. Many of the pages were torn away. Some chapters were missing and a number of the verses were actually cut out. It was terribly mangled. Reluctantly the pastor asked, "Haven't you got a better Bible than this?" The dying man replied, "When you came to our church I believed the entire book but as soon as you told us certain sections were not true, I removed them. When you said some stories were probably fiction and referred to them as fables, I tore them out. I think if I had another year under your teaching I would have nothing left but two covers."

The Bible is for you. The Bible is true, the Bible is precious. You must put it into action however, and that's what James comes in. Let's look at James. James 1:25 my last scripture. After He said be doers of the word, not hearers only – you can't just read the Bible. I remember having a discussion with Dr. Ward because Dr. Don Ward used to teach General Epistles in Big Sandy while I taught General Epistles in Pasadena, and we were comparing notes and I said, "You know Doc it's impossible to study and teach those books without changing yourself. Every year I come across all types of things that I need to overcome and grow" and he said, "You're right." You can't teach it; you can't read the word of God without it having an impact on you, but this is a better way to do it than the way you've been doing it. This is the way you need to do it. So he said, "Yeah, you're right." So he says be doers of the word, not hearers only deceiving your own selves. For if you be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholds himself and he forgets his, forgoes his way and straightway forgets  what manner of man he is. The Bible is like a mirror and in verse 25:

James 1:25 But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty,…that's found in the word of God… and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

So each of us possesses a precious book. The most precious book in all the world, but it's what we do with it. We can have lots of them on our bookshelves, but if we never open it and read it, and study it, and let it have impact on our lives and let it be precious to us – how precious? – so precious to us because it helps us to know and understand God to have His precious knowledge. It provides knowledge of how to live His way; it gives us comfort and inspiration, it helps us build faith, it provides personal help, and it gives us an eye to the future with hope.

May we all study God's word and remember how precious it really is.