habits. The most amazing book in the world. Well, first of all, it's the best-selling book in the world. So, I have a chart here. You can't see it that well. The ten best-selling books in the world. Let me give you the last four. The Lord of the Rings, 100 million copies. Harry Potter, 400 million copies. And then here's a book I know most of you have never heard of. Quotations from Chairman Mao of China, 820 million copies. But that's actually not fair because the Chinese government produces this book and forces everyone to read it. But we'll give them credit, 800 million copies. Now, if you could look at this chart, there is no comparison. It outsells all the other nine top things with over six billion copies. So every week on Sunday you have the very famous New York Times. And in the New York Times, it's only on Sunday, they have the book reviews. Now, if you're a culture watcher, this is a must to read. One of my dear friends would read it every Sunday, and he said, if you want to know what's going on in this world, read the book review. And there's excellent book reviews. They interview authors, and then they list the top 10 books. And I was going to give that to you, but you don't want to hear all the top 10 books, because most of you think you'll have to go read it. but you don't have to read it. You just look and see what's there. But here was something very interesting I saw. Faith and Fire, a novel examining lives affected by violent tragedies in the Bible Belt Town. That ought to be a popular one. Now, there's a problem. Here it is, the book reviews, the top 10 books. The Bible's not on it. Why is the Bible not on? It's just right after Christmas. Literally millions of Bibles would have been bought and given as gifts. Why is it not in the book review of the New York Times? Do you know why? It's a book all in its own category. Every month it outsells all these books together. In fact, Grace, come on up here a second. Where is Grace? Harvey, come on, come on, quickly, quickly. I don't have all day. Now, Grace, what is this? And when did you get this Bible? She got this Bible for a Christmas present. Now, Grace, come here, dear. Come on, closer, I'm not gonna bite you. Grace, you could not have gotten a greater gift than this is a study Bible. And this is better than tinker toys. This is the best-selling book in the entire world. And you know what? Make it your life's goal to devour this book. And it's a good study Bible. So it's a wonderful gift. And I've given many study Bibles as gifts, maybe over 100 throughout my lifetime. Yes, it's the greatest gift you can give anyone. Give them the Word of the Lord. The Cambridge History of the Bible states no other book has known anything approaching this constant circulation. There's a little over 6,000 languages in the world. Only the Bible has portions of those languages in over 2,000 languages. And several years ago, someone gave the Wycliffe Bible Translators $50 million to complete the task of getting at least portions of the Bible in every language of the world. The Bible is the monarch of books. There is no comparable book to the Bible. It's the most amazing book in the world, and that's because it's God's book. It's God's voice, God's speech, God's sword, God's hammer, God's fire. The Bible is food for the hungry soul, light for the blind, comfort for the weary pilgrim, It is the very words of God. So I have on the screen, and you would open your Bibles right now, to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy, chapter three. This is the Bible's own self-claim. Not our claim, the Bible's own self-claim. This is one of the most important verses on the Bible. This is 2 Peter 1, where we're told that men wrote, yes, men wrote the Bible, but as they were born along, pushed along like a wind pushing them along from the Holy Spirit. But look at this verse particularly. Sometimes you meet people and say, well, I don't believe the Bible. You say, that's fine. You don't have to believe the Bible. But let me tell you what the Bible says about itself. They have no idea what the Bible says about itself. And that's perfectly honest to do. Be like saying, I don't believe in Plato. Well, that's all right. Let me tell you what Plato said about himself and others. That would only be fair. So this is what the Bible claims about itself. Second Timothy chapter three, verse 16 and 17. All Scripture, all writings, is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching. Now, notice this claim. All Scripture is breathed out by God. Now, I want to just say six quick things. Do not sit here and take notes now. You'll not stay up with me. I just want to give you six key statements about this passage. Here we go. First of all, number one, the term itself, God breathes out, is unique and instructive. Most scholars feel that Paul coined this term. It's not found anywhere in Greek literature. It's made up of two words, God and breath. All scripture is breathed out by God. Now, some of your Bibles may say inspired. That's a very poor translation. It's actually inaccurate. It comes from the Latin translation of the Bible. The exact word, a literal translation would be, all scripture is breathed out by God. And that leads us to the part that scripture's source is the very breath of God. Scripture is God breathed out. Second, God's breath speaks of the scripture's origin in God himself. Psalm 33 verse six tells us that by the breath of God, the entire universe came into existence. Did you hear that? By the breath of God, the word of God, the whole universe came into existence. In other words, God just breathed the world into existence. It didn't happen by itself. It's not self-created. God created it by His very breath. Well, that's what the Bible is. It's breathed out. It's God's breath. Now, when we think of God's breath, Can you think of anything closer to you than your breath? Where does your breath come from? It comes from inside of you, your lungs. You exhale your breath out of you. So when he says the scripture, all scripture, is breathed out by God, he's saying all scripture comes from within God, within the heart, within the mind of God, it comes out. He is the source of all truth and all scripture. Deuteronomy 8.3, very famous verse in the Old Testament says, man does not live by bread alone, literally physical food or donuts if you want, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God. More than your food, you need the message from God, the truth from God, the spoken word from God. David said, "'The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me. His word was on my tongue.'" 2 Samuel 23. Jeremiah says, "'The Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "'Now I have put my words in your mouth.'" Jeremiah chapter 1. So the Bible's self-claim is that this is a literal word from God. Three, what is God-breathed is the scripture itself. What is God-breathed is the scripture itself. It's the product. God sovereignly created a book of his own making, and man did not create this book. It is from within God himself. Four, this means there is only one author of the Bible, and that the Bible is one book, this affirms the unity of the Bible. Now, we know that the Bible is a virtual library of 66 books. by at least 30 different writers, over 40 generations, in three different languages, in many different cultures, over a 1,500 year period of time. So, those are the human writers, but the author is one. It is God-breathed. Although we have many wonderful different genres of literature in the Bible, it was all spoken out by one author. The Bible is a book of unity. If you look at the cover of your Bible, it says, Holy Bible. This is a Holy Bible. Holy Bible. And the author is God himself. Fifth, since all scripture is God-breathed, it must be truthful, Trustworthy, infallible, authoritative, and inerrant. The scripture represents God's character and God's mind because it's from within God. John 17, 17, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. The Bible has to be inerrant because God cannot speak error. Now six, the Bible is a supernatural and human book Able unlike any other book to impart life and light to mankind. It is not an ordinary book. It's an extraordinary book Jeremiah said speaking from the Lord It is is not my word like a fire Said the Lord and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces Paul said it's the sword of the Spirit writer of Hebrews says it's a living and active sharper than any two-edged sword so It is a supernatural book. Its source is God himself, although he used human authors. Now, the second thing he says, it's profitable, profitable. Now, it's profitable for quite a few things. It's profitable for teaching, and it's profitable for correction. for training in righteousness so that the man or woman of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. In other words, the Bible is the greatest source of education that you can possibly have. Did you ever realize that? It's the best education you could have because it's profitable for all of life. In fact, the Bible is a transforming book. It's meant to transform. It's meant to correct, to reprove, and to train you in a righteous, moral life. Live before God. So you're equipped for every good work that you do. If you do not know the Bible, you are not equipped to do the work of God. You'll probably get yourself in trouble and get other people in trouble. My friends, it is a transformational book, and there is no other book like it. It is indescribably great. Job said, it's more important to me than my very food. I want you to listen to what some people have said about the Bible. Eric, would you just get me a little, a cup of water? Would you mind? Let me just tell you what some people have said about the Bible. This first quote is one I've used many, many times. Listen carefully. The Bible is full of infinities and immensities. That's a beautiful quote by Thomas Carlyle. The Bible is full of infinities and immensities. You will never in this life ever plummet everything in the Bible. There's no way. The greatest minds have dealt with the Bible and they still haven't plummeted all the depths and the truths in the Bible. The Bible is alive and speaks to me, Martin Luther. Sin will keep you from this book, or book, this book will keep you from sin, Moody. This book is the best gift God has ever given to man, but for it we would not know right from wrong, Abraham Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt, a thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. Now I want to know how many of you believe that. We spend a lot of money on educating our children. You can go to college today and it'll cost you $40,000 to $60,000 a year. And in many cases, it'll mess up your children's minds. They'll come back a different person, and yet we pay for it. A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. It's impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible. George Washington. Now listen to this quote by General Douglas MacArthur. This quote has spoken to me over the years many times. This is a busy man. You ever hear people say, I hear this all the time, oh, I'm just so busy. I just don't have time. This is a man who had very little time at the end of his day as he led the Allied forces in World War II. 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. That has rebuked me. Oh, I'm so tired today. I've had a long, exhausting day. And then you spend the next two hours watching television. Be I ever so tired, I read the word of God before I go to bed. Now, second in your outline, the most neglected book of the world. John Stott, former rector of All Souls Church in downtown London and honorary chaplain to the Queen of England, wrote this. This much-purchased book is a much-neglected book. Probably tens of thousands of people who buy the Bible never read it. Even in churches, knowledge of the Bible is abysmal. Few church members make a practice of daily Bible meditation. And then Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, who was at Dallas Seminary for many years, but it was Dr. Johnson who started the Believer's Chapel in Dallas, Texas, which in the 60s became the role model for all systematic Bible-teaching churches. You talk to John MacArthur, you talk to John Piper, you talk to Mark Dever, every one of them, every one of them, we heard this in a conference, pointed back to S. Lewis Johnson as their model of preaching systematically through the Bible. Listen to what S. Lewis Johnson says. I have come to believe that the great sin of Christians in evangelical churches is neglect of the Bible. It has been my observation, and I am inclined, including myself, that our greatest failure is that we don't read the Bible. We listen to people talk about the Bible, we listen to preachers like me, and we read books, but we do not read the Bible, and it should be the reverse. And that is very true. Very easy to be caught up with many other books, but we don't encounter the Bible itself. And it's a big book. It takes a lifetime of devotion to know the Bible well. Now third, the most hated book in the world. Listen to what Voltaire said. If we would destroy the Christian religion, we must first of all destroy man's belief in the Bible. Is that true? Jonathan Edwards, the devil, with ever has ever shown a mortal spite and hatred towards that holy book, the Bible. He has done all in his power to extinguish that light. He is engaged against the Bible and hates every word in it. The Bible tells of his doom and of your salvation. And then, Gordon Clark. But the history of the church also demonstrates that there is one perennial recurring battle, the battle for the Bible. The devil, with diabolical wisdom, continually returns to attack the first principle, the starting point, the axiom of Christianity, the Bible. He knows that if he can destroy, distort, or smother that word, then he need not confuse men's minds about the Trinity or the Incarnation. By destroying the foundation for those doctrines, he destroys it too. There has always been a hatred for the Bible. Now, let's look back at the 20th century and even now. Communism in Russia and China and other places in the world, one of their goals is always to extinguish the Bible, to get rid of Bibles. It's against the law to have a Bible. What a paradox that most Bibles that you guide today are printed in China. That's right. I just got this out of the newspaper. In North Korea, a Christian woman accused of distributing the Bible, a book banned in communist North Korea, was publicly executed last month for the crime of distributing Bibles. We have it pretty safe here, don't we? I wonder what you would do if it was a crime or a criminal act to own a Bible and be seen with a Bible. I wonder what you would do. Communism, modern secularism today, as we just saw here in this newspaper here. hates the Bible. And it may not be law, and I do not think I'm exaggerating, that it will be declared criminal speech. There are already countries where you cannot preach Romans 1 in your church. It's against the law. And some pastors very bravely have defied that law and been arrested. It's coming here, and it's coming real fast. The world hates the Bible, the full Bible. Secularism, and the secularism of today is not the secularism of 25 years ago. It's a new, hostile, aggressive secularism that will not leave us alone. Its goal is to stamp out anyone who disagrees with secularisms and its philosophies and all of its sexual revolutionaries. Next, the scripture builds our relationship with Jesus Christ. First of all, scripture reveals Jesus Christ. Now this is very interesting. God has shut us up to the Bible to know anything about Jesus Christ. Did you know that? You've got a little statement in Tacitus, Roman historian. You've got a statement in Josephus, which may have been added later, called an interpolation. And then people will tell you about the Gospel of Thomas in the Gnostic books. Have you ever read the Gospel of Thomas? Let me tell you what it's like. The difference between the Gospel of Thomas and the Bible is the difference between Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper and a three-year-old child trying to draw a picture of their parents. I'm not joking. Read the Gospel of Thomas. You probably will not get through it. It's just jibber-jabber. Put that next to the Gospel of John or Matthew. There's a glory, a weight, a majesty to the writing of the Bible. Now, I've read all the second century writers. I've read them actually in several translations. There's no comparison to second century writers like Ignatius and Polycart and all the rest to the Bible. There is something supernatural about the very literary form itself. There's a greatness to it and a majesty to it. Well, God has shut us up to the Bible to know anything about Jesus Christ. And thus, we need the Bible to know Jesus Christ and to know anything about him. Listen to what the scripture says here. In the beginning with Moses on the road to Emmaus, and with all the prophets, he explained to them, these two disciples, all the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. Jesus claims that He's the subject of Scripture. It's all about Him. Now, just think of how ridiculous this would be if I were to say to you, the Bible is all about me. Hey, what are you laughing at? The Bible is all about Alex Strauch. Moses, he wrote about me. Prophets, they wrote about me. Psalms, it's all about me. But that's what Jesus said. Didn't he? He taught them all the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. You're not laughing, are you? You know why? Because it's true. You read the Bible Christocentrically. He's the great theme of the Bible. The great theme of the Bible is God's redemption of a lost humanity. And he tells us the storyline of how this happens. That's why J.I. Packer says this. Only when your reading of the written Word feeds into your relationship with the living Word does the Bible operate as the channel of life, light and life that God means it to be. Two more things I want to say to you. The Scripture transforms us into Christ. That is done, first of all, by the new birth, by the new birth. The Scripture says this, 1 Peter 1, verse 23, For you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding Word of God. I'm going to tell you a story here told by a Wycliffe missionary. It's a true story. He was from South Africa and he was giving away Bibles to people. I think a couple years ago, the United Bible Society gave away something like 60 million, even more than that, 60 million Bibles, just gave them away. So this missionary was giving Bibles away, and he gave a Bible to this young man. The man said, I'm not gonna read it. In fact, I'm gonna tear it up and smoke it. I'm gonna put it into cigarettes, put weed in it, and I'm gonna smoke it if you give it to me. So the missionary said this, okay. If you promise to read the page of the Bible that you read out, you can do that. The man said, okay. So he gave him a New Testament. So the man tore out the first page in Matthew, read the page, rolled it up, smoked it. Went to the second chapter, read the second chapter. So he smoked his way all through the book of Matthew. This is a true story. He was very interested in the story. It got very interesting. So, he smoked his way all through the Gospel of Mark, went through the Gospel of Luke, got to the Gospel of John, and by halfway through the Gospel of John, he was born of the Spirit and born again. Four years later, he meets that missionary, and he goes up to the missionary and says, do you remember giving me a Bible four years ago, and I told you I'd smoke the Bible, I'd roll it up into cigarettes? He says, yes, I do remember that. Well, I'm that man, and I'm born of the Spirit. I'm a child of God today from reading the Gospels. So if you have to smoke it to get saved, that's fine. Well, that's because the Bible's a supernatural book. It's not a geology book. It's not a history book, although it's full of history. It's a supernatural book that you can read this book and be born of the Spirit. The Spirit of God can regenerate you through the very words, because they're breathed out by God. The very message of God can save you. It's unlike any other book, through the new birth. And then, by nourishing the new life in Christ. Peter says this, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it, the word, you may grow in respect to salvation. As a Christian, you cannot grow, and that's, if you go through your New Testament, how much is said about we have to grow? You cannot grow without the Bible. It's the sanctifying power of God. It literally will change your mind and heart, your attitude, your speech. That's his purpose, to transform you into Christ, like Christ. When you, by the way, the word here, like newborn babes, we have a newborn babe here. Go look at that newborn babe. What does a newborn babe want? One thing, anyone wanna tell me? Milk, right, and three o'clock in the morning, doesn't matter what time it is, ah, they scream, they want milk, they crave milk, that's the word used here. Like a newborn baby craving, craving, and they will not stop until you feed them. You're done if you don't feed them. Like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, it's only by it that you'll grow in respect to salvation. That's the power, the transforming power of the Word of God. Now, I want to turn to something very practical here. The Bible is breathed out by God. It has transforming power. The Spirit of God works through the Word of God. In fact, Warren Wiersbe said this statement. It's very good. When the child of God looks into the Word of God and sees the Son of God, he is changed by the Spirit of God into the image of God for the glory of God. That's good. The ultimate goal of your sanctification and for reading the Bible is to be more like Jesus Christ. Our master, we're disciples, he's the master. And the goal of the Christian life through the word of God is to be more like Jesus Christ in your speech, your attitudes, your behavior, your conduct, your relationships with people, and whatever position you have in life to be like Jesus Christ. That's the goal, sanctification, Christ-likeness. But you can't get there without the Bible. It's not possible, because that's God's means. He chose the means of his breathed-out words to transform you and to rebuke you and to guide you, keep you on the straight and narrow. Let's look at practical helps for reading the Bible. I want to be very practical here. Because many of us are frustrated in our Bible reading. We've got a lot of good excuses, but they're really worthless. Number one, develop a plan for regular, disciplined Bible reading and study. Reading the Bible is like exercising. We all know we need to exercise, and we always feel better when we exercise, but somehow we fail to exercise, and the reason is we don't have a serious plan. So let's pretend normal times, not now, we have the new year coming in another week, right? Go to any gym. January 1st, go to any gym, they are packed. I remember we have a gym right near our house that we've been going to for years. And it was a couple of years ago, I went in on a January morning. You couldn't even get in there, it was packed. So I said to the guy, what's going on? He said, oh, New Year's Resolution. Don't worry, in three weeks they won't be here. That's exactly what he said to me. In three weeks they won't be here. That's like us with our Bible reading. I'm gonna get into the Bible, I'm gonna read the Bible. Four months later, you know, oh, I really haven't touched it in a long time. We don't have a plan. We don't have a course of action. We don't know what we're doing. Consequently, we have good intentions, but we read the Bible haphazardly and inconsistently, and finally we give up. All right, so here's some advice. First of all, number one, if you have never read the Bible, read the whole Bible through, Genesis to Revelation, just like you would read a novel, a book of fiction, or a biography. You sit down, and you have several months, you're gonna finish that book, right? The Bible is a story that starts in Genesis 1-1, in the beginning God created heaven, and it ends with the new heavens and new earth. It's a storyline. It's a very interesting storyline, because it's God's storyline. And each of the books in the Bible fit in that storyline. And it's called a progressive revelation. In other words, you start with real simple things, and you end with Paul. end with the book of Revelation. Progressively, over time, God is revealing his plans to you and his will to you. If you have never read the whole Bible, read the whole Bible and read it quickly. Try to get through it in four months. Just sit down and read. Don't worry about understanding everything, that comes later. You've gotta read through the whole thing. So this young man in our church, very fine young man, one of our elders over at Littleton Bible Chapel, he comes to me and wants to take me to lunch. He's gonna pay, I know something's up. Whenever they say, I'm gonna pay, they always expect me to pay, they say, I'm gonna take you to lunch, I'm gonna pay. Okay, what's this about? So he takes me to lunch, and we're at lunch, and he says, I'd like to marry your daughter. I said, well, that's very nice. You're a very nice young man, but have you read the whole Bible yet? Oh, he said, no, I haven't read the whole Bible yet. Well, you can't marry my daughter. I'm not going to give my daughter to a man who hasn't even read the whole Bible. Imagine what an embarrassment it would be in the church when I tell people my daughter just married a man who hasn't read the whole Bible. I'm going to hand my daughter over to this gorilla. Now, to be fair to him, he had read much of it. I said, read the rest of the Bible, and then you'll take me to lunch again. So he finished his Bible reading, he took me to lunch again, and he said, can I marry your daughter? I said, yes, you can marry my daughter, but I wanna be able to say you're a man who has read the Bible. Many, many Christians, more than I even imagined, have never read the whole Bible. Okay, so that's your first assignment. If you've never done it, just read right through it. Now, second assignment is this. Have a plan of how to read the Bible properly. So, for over 40 years at Littleton Bible Chapel, every year we have Bible reading plans and we challenge the church, just like I'm doing right now with you, we challenge the church to read the Bible or portions of the Bible, the New Testament. Very few actually complete it, very few. It's sort of sad. The reason is they don't know how to read the Bible. So I'm going to give you an idea here. You do your best with it. If every year you want to read Genesis to Revelation, that's a good goal. But I want to remind you, you're only going to read six months in the epistles. I said the Bible is a progressive revelation, right? When you get to Paul, and John, and James, and the writer of Hebrews, you are at the highest revelation, the doctrine of the church, and the work and person of Christ, and what he does for us, and then finally the new heavens and new earth. The highest revelation, six weeks. You are reading almost 80% in the Old Testament. So I think a better plan, after you've read through the whole Bible, is to read the Bible in three years. And here's how, well, I wanna just make a recommendation, a justice, anyway. So, the first year, you'd read the first five books of Moses, and you would read Proverbs and Job. Second year, you'd read the historical books, Psalms and Ecclesiastes. Third year, you'd read all the prophets in the Old Testament. Now, you're reading the New Testament at the same time. You would read, in one year, two gospels in the book of Acts. The next year, you'll read the other two gospels. Every year, you will read the epistles at least twice, at least twice. Every day, you should read a chapter in the epistles, because that's where we learn of Christ and the church and what God is doing. The New Testament interprets the Old Testament. You can do very simply without killing yourself, because many people get discouraged, and they get behind, and then they give up, okay? Now, let me talk about the Old Testament. That's where people die, seriously. They cannot understand it. Honestly speaking, honestly speaking, if you read Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah, they are huge, huge books, right? People get into them and they're lost. They're completely lost and they get discouraged. I don't even have any idea what this means to me. So here's how to do this. Listen carefully. Never read those big books without the outline of the book right in front of you. Grace, bring your Bible up here again, quickly. Have the outline of the book. Because when you're reading Jeremiah, Jeremiah can jump back and forth. Thank you, you're such a good assistant. You're jumping back and forth and you may not know, what is he talking about? If you have an outline in front of you in these big books, you follow the outline, you always see where you are. Now here's the other thing. This is a very good study Bible right here. It's an excellent study Bible. Don't read those books without the commentary below. Here's why, I'm gonna give you a very important word. You ready for this important word? It's a very important word, get it? Understanding. Some people read the Bible like a lucky rabbit's foot. I gotta get my three chapters in today. Boy, I did the right thing. What did you read today? I don't know, but I did it, I did it. It's like a charm, you know? It almost gets superstitious. Read with understanding, understanding. When you read these big books, including Leviticus, they're very hard. Let's be frank. They're very hard. If you have the commentary below, then you know what you're reading. You're reading with understanding. Are you going to read with understanding? Are you going to read the commentary below? Okay. Thank you. I heard that testimony. Read with understanding, and if you don't have understanding, use then a good study Bible that gives you understanding. My wife has been for a number of years She'll read like, let's say she's gone all through the epistles, she'll read like Philippians, and then she'll get a good commentary and read through the whole commentary. Part of her devotion. And she said to me, I learn so much more when I have explanations for what I'm reading. So right now she's reading through the Psalms with Alan Ross, which we have recommended here, through the Psalms. Because the Psalms can be very, very, what is he talking about? Well, you have a Hebrew expert telling you this is what you're reading. She finds it so much more edifying, and she has understanding. So, have a plan, know what you're doing. Don't just start, and some people, it's unbelievable, they'll, well, let's see, today I'll read over here. Next day, they'll open the Bible, I'll read here. It's not that kind of book. You need to have the flow and the understanding of the book. All right, next, create a place and time. Some of you don't read your Bibles because you can't find your Bible because you left it here at church. And someday we're going to call you up and say, where is your Bible? You'll say, I don't know. Well, I'll say, I know where it is. It's here at church. And it's not going to help you here at church. So, three things that have helped me. First, have a regular place, a desk where all your pens, your paper, your Bibles are, so you don't ruin your devotion time by wondering where's your Bible, where's your pen, where's your paper? Second, have a quiet place. This is very important. We live in a noisy, noisy age. It's incredible, actually, how noisy it is. Have a quiet place. Tell the members of your household, while I'm reading my Bible, I ask you not to turn the TV on. I need quietness with God so he can speak to me through his word. I'm listening to the voice of God, the speech of God. I can't have the television on, the radio on, whatever else noise we have, the dog barking, the kids screaming. Anyway, that's why I like early in the morning, early in the morning before all the troops arise. And then a time each day, a time each day. Set a regular time, make it a habit, and make it a habit. Your goal is to make it a habit you can't give up. So I have the habits, I have my place, it's quiet, and I have a time each day, and I don't like to lose that time. If I do lose it, I feel something's not right in the rest of my day. John Blanchard, evangelist from England, writes this, surely we only have to be realistic and honest with ourselves to know how regularly we need to turn to the Bible. How often do we face problems, temptation, pressure every day? Then how often do we need instruction, guidance, and greater encouragement? Every day. To catch all these felt needs up into an even greater issue, how often do we need to see God's face, hear His voice, feel His touch, know His power? The answer to all these questions is the same every day. Every day. Next, use a good, readable Bible and become familiar with your Bible. You want your Bible to be comfortable. Now, I want to give you a warning. Sometimes as gifts, we give people Bibles that the print is so small that it actually hinders you from reading the Bible. And as you get older, it really hinders you from the Bible. So I use a nice, large print Bible. I don't like the little, tiny, tiny words. It's just too hard. I use a good, large print Bible. You want to be comfortable with your Bible. You want to be familiar with your Bible. I like to mark my Bible. Some people don't like to, but I like to be able to find things. I'll write right across the top or right on the bottom, write notes on the side. I want to be able to have like a picture in my brain of the Bible. Now, in the old days, when people would have their Scofield Bibles, you could ask, this is not an exaggeration, I'm going back 50 years ago when people read their Bibles much more, because they didn't have all this technology to drag them away into something foolish, you could ask the average Christian, Give them a verse in the New Testament. They weren't that good in the Old Testament, but give them a verse and they could tell you, well, it's right over here on this side of the page. I've been reading my Schofield Bible for 20 years. I know just where that verse is. They become familiar with it. They see it. They understand it. That's what you want to do. Now you want a Bible that is called essentially literal, literal, essentially literal, not just simply a dynamic translation. And that's why we use the ESV, the English Standard Version, because it does two things. It follows an essentially literal, literal translation that has come down through the King James and all the way down to the modern times, but it, weeds out the roughness of some of the older Bibles that are more stilted, and they also have a correct view of the gender. They're not changing gender to meet the modern age, but they're weeding out stuff that you shouldn't say man when it says everyone. In other words, it's gender sensitive in the right way, in the right way. We have a booklet back there that explains why we use the ESV. New American Standard Bible is a good Bible. In fact, they're coming out with a new one here very, very soon. So, be comfortable with your Bible. Love your Bible. Now, I do not bring my Bible to church. Do you know why I don't bring my Bible to church? What do you think has happened to me? I have lost my Bible. Oh, nothing worse than you lose your good Bible. Well anyway, I don't ever take it out of the house, period. So I bring a Bible like this. If you wanna steal this Bible, you can steal it, I don't care. You can steal it, take it. But I don't take my Bible out of the house, because I do not want to lose it. All right, next here. Read, meditate on the Bible. Read, meditate on the Bible. Notice Joshua 1.8. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. Notice the emphasis on meditation and understanding. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1-2. Psalm 119, selection of verses. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. Open my, I love this verse, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. That's a great prayer to pray anytime you open the Bible. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditations." And that's what David said. He got smarter than the teachers because he meditated on the Word of God. My friends, the Bible will make you an intelligent person, but even more than intelligent, it'll make you a wise person. That's far more important. that you are wise. Do you notice in our politics, in the elections this year, and in all that we've read about, not one leader has been presented as a wise person. You notice that? He can win votes, you know, he knows how to win an election, but not one has been stated as a wise person. And then Thomas Watson has made these important words, they're very familiar words. The reason we come away so cold from reading the word is because we do not warm ourself on the fire of meditation. The tree of your spiritual life thrives best with meditation because it helps you absorb the water of God. So how do you read in meditation? So I meditate on the word every morning. I usually like a little three by five card. And while I'm reading, I will force myself to read more slowly. If I don't have a card or something to stop me, I just start reading. Then all of a sudden I ask myself this question, why don't I just read? This just happened to me the other day. I read a section and I go, What did I just read? I mean, literally, I forgot what I read, because I wasn't reading. I was looking at the words and thinking I was reading, but I wasn't reading, because I don't even remember what I read. I wasn't reading with any understanding. So I take a card, and I go slowly, and I ask questions. And I ask questions. What is the connection here? What's the big point? What's the main verb? And I just take my time going through it. Now, this takes extra time, but you get much more out of it. You read with understanding. So I like reading slowly and methodically and meditating. And if it's something really important, try to go back over it throughout the day. Or It's a commentary on it. So, read with understanding. Learn the great skill of meditation on the words. Now, let's go quickly here, we're almost done. Use a Bible reading project. By that I mean, let's say there's a subject you're interested in. So, I'll pick the subject of love. In my daily devotions going through the Bible, I will write down or type out every single verse on that subject. Now, sometimes the word love is not used, but the story is about love, like Hosea. There's illustrations of love, although the word isn't. That's why it's building your own concordance. So maybe you have subjects of interest. People all have areas they're very interested in, in the Bible or in theology. Well, a great way to learn that subject is while you're reading your Bible, mark down all the Bible says about it. You've got your own concordance now on a subject of great interest to you. Next, listen to the audio Bible. Oh, this is really great. Max McLean, The Listener's Bible, which is the ESV, takes about 75 hours to listen to the whole Bible read by Max McLean. Well, if you do that 12 minutes a day, you've got the whole Bible in 12 minutes a day read by a professional reader. So there was a lady at Littleton Bible Chapel. She just died months ago. Some of you know her, Mrs. Grauman. And I said to Mrs. Grauman, about June, I said to her, how are you doing in your Bible reading? She says, I've been through the Bible three times. I said, what? Three times? She says, yes. I listened to it, read to me. So when I drive down to Camp Eden, it's an hour and 45 minutes, an hour and 45 minutes back each week. I've been able to go through all the epistles listening to Max McLean read it to me. Sometimes I go over the same letter four or five times listening to him read. It's a different way of learning through the ear, not just the eye. And sometimes he can alert you to things. Ask someone to hold you accountable for your Bible reading. You can have your spouse do that or friends do that. And you call each other each week. And then use your Bible reading to add to your prayer. Sometimes you just get tired of the same old, same old prayers, right? You get in a prayer rut, use the same words, the same sentences, and you think you're talking to yourself or just the ceiling. Well, George Mueller would pray the Bible. So, let's say you're reading John 1, which we just did today, and in your prayer you say, I thank you, oh God, that you sent your son, he took on flesh, he dwelt among us in all his grace and truth, and you put that right in your prayer. So if you wanna break out of a prayer rut, use your Bible reading, your daily Bible reading, and pray what you read today. It'll bring some new life to you, and you'll also get that doctrine in your head. All right, last point, be doers of the Word and not just readers. All right, so you read the Bible, you like reading the Bible, but if it has no effect upon you, if you don't obey it and do what it says, it actually is a boomerang that comes and hits you in the back of the head. Here's what he says, be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. You want to deceive yourself? Read the Bible and don't do what it says. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he's like. In other words, he says this, if you do not obey what you read, because it's a divine book and God is speaking to you, two things happen. First, you're self-deceived. The second thing is, It has no transforming power over you. You don't even remember what you look like. It doesn't affect you. It doesn't change you. It doesn't bring Christ-likeness. So it's lost its transforming power. You must obey this book, because it's the word of God. It's God breathed out words. So this is our challenge for the new year. Our challenge is that you are a Bible-reading Christian. You know that you have that little box in your house, you know, called the TV? Alexander is from Germany, one of the German sociologists, and I think Alexander maybe gave me this. This German sociologist said, you know what a TV is? It's the greatest time-wasting machine ever invented. Look at how many hours you spend listening to the word of God, how many hours you spend in front of a TV. Don't even do it, it'd be too embarrassing. Turn that TV off and meditate on the very words and breath of God to you. This is the greatest gift God has given to us outside of his son, right there. All that you need to live life in a way that honors God and is the very best for you is right here. We just don't know it. We're ignorant of it. Have little portions that we understand. There is a time commitment to this. There is saying no to other things or you'll never master the very words of God.