But as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Doing the will of God from the heart. I've entitled this series, Living for God, or we could even say, having a heart. for God. Why is it that we live for God? And we, for the last few weeks, have looked at why we live for God. We have talked about, for the glory of God is why we live for God. Because of who we are in Christ is why we live for God. Another reason tonight, in tonight's message, this may be one of the easiest ones to preach and understand, I think. It's obvious, I think, for those of us who are redeemed, if you know the Lord, And that is the word of God. The word of God is the message tonight. I want you to look with me in Romans 15, four. Before we do that, let's pray together. Lord, I thank you for this time tonight. I thank you for these folks that have came out. I'm so glad they're here. Pray your blessing. Lord, help us to have attentive hearts tonight. Minds to your word. Help us to apply it to our hearts. Lord, I sure thank you for the singing, the choir practice, the prayers tonight, the giving. We've worshiped you tonight. in a finite way, but Lord, I thank you that you care about the finite. And Lord, we sure praise you for your infinite goodness to us and mercy. And I pray you'd be with us now in these next few moments, and we'll be careful and sure to give you all the praise tonight. We love you, Lord, and thank you now, in Jesus' name, amen. Romans 15, four, if you're there, say amen. And we've got some Bible verses, and I'm gonna just be kind of flipping around, looking at several Bible verses. I'm gonna give you some references to write down. Most everything that I'm gonna mention tonight, you're gonna know. You're gonna know since you were maybe a young Christian. But if you're like me, how do y'all know this? You need to be reminded of things. And we ought to be constantly learning as Christians. And one thing about learning, if you know anything about education, not only do you learn, but you have to relearn things and then be reminded of things you already learned. You have to go back and have a refresher. Some of you may be even in an industry where they require you. I used to work for a company and every so often we had to have refreshers about the newest thing, the newest electronic devices. We had to learn what those were about. how those were made and how to fix them. And we had to be constantly going to school. Well, the Christian's the same way because we've never arrived, have we? We do not know everything. How many of y'all know this tonight? We don't know everything. And we need to be constantly learning. And some things that you may know that somebody else may not know, and I've learned every day, I've learned something new all the time. And I hope that this will be a help to you tonight, even though you're gonna be very, very, very familiar with this. Romans chapter 15 verse four, I want you to look at that verse with me. It says this, for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Another reason tonight for us to live for the Lord, live for God, give our lives to God, is because of the book that you hold in your hand tonight. The Bible is, I mean, it is a central part of our faith. We are Baptists. We are Protestant in the sense of being handed down to us. We make much of the scriptures. It is a big deal in our church. There is a reason we make a big deal as Baptist about the Bible. The Bible is the final rule of faith and practice. We go tonight as Christians on what the Bible says and not on what any man says. We take tonight what the Bible says over the government, we take what the Bible says over even people, whatever it may be, whatever religion, we take God's Word. God's Word is the final rule. Scripture alone. Scripture alone. And so tonight we're going to talk about that a little bit. Why is living for God? Why is the Bible, the Word of God, is a reason? You know, some people do it and say, well, I'm just going through the motions. And one of the things that I wanted us to get away from, I know I wanted to get away from in my life, is just going through the motions. We do it out of duty. We do it out of habit. I think in our area, in the Bible Belt, and kind of the way we were raised, many times we do it out of tradition. It's just like Thanksgiving. It's just like some tradition. There's nothing wrong with traditions in and of themselves. Let me say this to you tonight. God is more than man's tradition. In fact, if you remember this morning, if you were here, y'all hear me okay? In Romans chapter one, God got tired of the traditions. He didn't want that. He wanted us to worship him in a right spirit, in a right heart. And the Word of God is the reason. Well, why is that? Why is the Bible such a big deal to us tonight? Why is it that preachers make a big deal out of the Bible? And many of you, I know, on Sunday night, you already, in fact, I almost didn't preach this. I thought, Lord, everybody on Sunday night loves the Bible. Everybody on Sunday night appreciates the Bible. They have a Bible. Many of you have Bible collections. My wife, I preached a couple weeks ago, I worked hard to get it out of my house. My favorite possession is my fancy Bible, I call it, my Schuyler Bible. How many of y'all love the Bible tonight? But I don't just love it because they're pretty and because they're cool and all that. As a Christian, the Bible has changed my life. The word of God has changed your life. I say to you tonight that the Word of God has changed this world. There's nothing like the Logos, the Word. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God. It wasn't, hey God, hey, I thank God tonight that we have the living, breathing Word of God. It is no secret tonight, church, why it is such, it is so under attack. Satan does everything that he can to undermine the Word of God. If you get people doubting the Word of God, in fact, if you listen to an atheist, for example, talk for a fair few minutes, they will inevitably utter this statement, something like this, that, oh, you mean that book of fables. Oh, you mean that book of fairy tales written by men. They have in their arsenal as God-haters and Bible-deniers that statement because they utterly despise this book. I remember Brother John Miller giving me a paper, and I had it for, in fact, I think I still have it in my office. And it was a thing, it was written by witches. And they quoted the witch, I think it was the Roanoke Times. And they quoted the witches and they said, we hate the Bible. And in particular, we hate the King James Bible. I thought, well, if there's no other reason you ought to love your Bible, it's because the witches hate it. That's a good reason. Why would they hate the Bible? Why would Hollywood do everything they could to stay away from the Bible? Why is it that you don't hear much Bible? And if you do hear it, it's always taken out of context, or it's always twisted and turned, as Satan has done. Well, there's some reasons why. because the Bible has done something for us. Can I give you a few of these tonight and give you some encouragement throughout the week? And tonight as you go home, many of you are gonna know this. Let me give you some things tonight. Write these down, would you? And take with me, if you would, and let's take a journey through our Bibles tonight. And I'm gonna give you a few verses tonight. First of all, number one, I'm gonna give you about 10 or 11 of these. Everybody okay? I'll go through these real fast. Number one, God's word was given by God. God's Word was given by God. What a great gift that is. If you take your Bibles, turn with me to 2 Timothy 3 in verse 16. And if you don't wanna turn through, if it's gonna be a lot of turning, I'd encourage you to turn. I'd encourage you to highlight and to underline. If you don't wanna mess up your nice Bible, get you a Bible that you can do that, or mark them however it is that you mark them. And I want you to look with me at 2 Timothy chapter three and verse 16. Most of you know this, that God's word was given by God and is profitable. 2 Timothy 3.16 says this, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. And it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. It was given by God. Now it goes on. There's a lot in that verse. That's a powerful verse. And it tells us, have you ever noticed the Bible is an amazing book. The Bible is an amazing book. We have a Bible readers banquet every year. to encourage you to read through your Bible. And every year, I've had the testimonies now, I think we've done that for about 20 years, 18, 20 years now, and every year somebody has a testimony, even if they may have read through their Bibles or their New Testament or the Old Testament, they may have read through it every year, but every year you'll find something new in the Bible. And you'll find something that convicts you. Have you ever found something that you know when you read it, man, that comes from God. Dr. Harold Wilmington used to say, I had the privilege of sitting under him who wrote Wilmington's Guide to the Bible. If you ever get a chance to get one of those, I'd love to buy you one of those. They're great books. And he used to say this. I love this statement. He used to say, the Bible is not a book man would write if he could or could write if he would. I love that. It's not a Bible that I would write. It's not a Bible you would write. It's not a Bible that a group of people get together and write, despite what the atheists and infidels says. It is given by God. That's why we respect it. That's why we revere it. That's why many have died for it. The preaching of the word of God is such a paramount thing in our churches, because the Bible is given by God. Why do I live for God? Well, he's given me a book that shows me how to live for him. The Bible, it's God's word, it's God's guidance. Sometimes we make the mistake of saying Cook's Chapel says, or Pastor Peyton says, or you can put whatever preacher there, or what my mom says, or my dad says. But remember this, church, and I gotta remember this. If somebody says it and they're quoting the Bible, it's not really them saying it, it's the Bible that says it. And we tried, I mean, I've had people come and I've had a few people argue with me about things that said, well, you say I'm like you, I don't always agree. I have to line up with this book. This book straightens me out. Why does it do that? because it was given by God. There's no seer. The testimonies of the Bible tonight are many. You know, when you go in the prison ministry, did you know when you go, and I know I share this thought, but it's so profound to me that I've seen them in lockdown cells. You know, the only thing they're allowed to have in there? Very little things, but they are allowed to have a Bible. You know how many times that I've seen grown men, I'm talking about rough, incarcerated for life, I mean, done things that are heinous. You know what happens when they get in there with that Bible? God starts working on that heart. It's an amazing thing. The world didn't do it. You know, drugs and alcohol didn't do it. They get in there with the word of God. Hey, guess what happens to them? God starts working on them. Testimony after testimony. I remember a man, a grown man said, hey, my mama tried to get me to read this all my life. It took me getting here before I finally sat down and started looking. changed their life. Why? Because it's given by God. Secondly, write this down and turn with me to Hebrews chapter four, verse 12. If you want to turn, write that note down. Hebrews four, verse 12. Secondly, the Bible is alive and discerns our hearts. God's word is alive and discerns our hearts. The Bible says this in Hebrews chapter four, verse 12. I'll give you a moment to get there. Write that reference down. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Burn it up. Have you ever maybe went away from church as I have done? or a sermon or heard something on the... And you've thought something kind of like this right here. You've said, well, that preacher stepped on my toes. Or he must have talked to my spouse. Or my mom and dad must have talked to Brother Dallas. Or whoever it may be. Or you hear somebody, and you say, man, you know what that is tonight? That's not the church. That's not the preacher. That's the Word of God discerning your heart. It's an amazing thing. The Bible is an amazing book. It is alive, it says. I miss Brother Bill Ratliff. Y'all miss Brother Bill? Brother Bill loved the Bible. And Brother Bill loved to tell me where he would find something in the Bible. Sometimes there'd be a question that he had. Sometimes he'd be like, I don't understand this. But many times he'd say, look at this, look at this verse. Brother Rick Childress would come to me and say, man, look at this verse. Look at these verses that have just gripped my heart and gripped my mind. How does that happen? How does that do that? I enjoy literature, I enjoy the great writers, but there's nothing like the Bible. It is a discerner of our hearts. That's why when you read it, you get pricked to the heart. You ever been grouchy and read your Bible? You ever been sad and read your Bible? Happy and read your Bible mad at your spouse and read your Bible Have you ever noticed that God has in a miraculous way of getting to you even though you may reach? I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna find some verses. I'm gonna straighten her out You ever notice this it'll straighten you out Same thing happens when you pray. The Bible is a spiritual book. It is alive and discerns our hearts. That's why we need to make so much of it. That's what does it. It's the Bible. In fact, if the Bible doesn't do the work, if the Bible doesn't do those things, then listen, it's alive and it says it's sharper than a two-edged sword. Did you know many times, if I don't get a chance to maybe sit down and show somebody how to be saved, I always try to quote Bible verses to them. Because the Bible has a way, tonight, in fact, you'll go home tonight, and you may not remember, you might not be able to pay attention, you may be on your phone, or half asleep, or thinking about tomorrow, thinking about next week, and so you come to service, and you're like, well, I'm kinda into it, I'm kinda not into it, I wish you'd hurry up and get home, I'm hungry. And our flesh takes over. But guess what happens with the Bible? It'll be Tuesday afternoon, you'll be driving down the road, boom, that verse will come to your mind. That verse will hit you like a ton of bricks. That verse will kind of come in real sharp. You won't even expect it. In fact, maybe you'll do something. My son, when sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Every young man ought to have that verse. So every time somebody comes, boom, it convicts them. I'll sit in a wicked thing before my eyes. I mean, I could go on and on and on. Bible verses that God used in my life and used in your life. There's no other book like that. And so we live for God because God's Word is alive that discerns our heart. Let's look at another one real quickly, would you? 1 Thessalonians 2. 1 Thessalonians 2, not only is it given by God, it's alive, but it works in us. It doesn't work in us. This is well-documented. Many of you could probably stand and give a testimony of how the Bible worked in you, worked in your heart, and worked in your life. 1 Thessalonians 2. It says, for this cause also, this is chapter two, verse 13, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. Man, read your Bible. Study the word. Are you having a problem with bitterness or hard heartedness or meanness or cruelness or somebody doing you wrong, something going wrong? Read the Bible. If you, whatever it may be, you're feeling sad, you're feeling down, read your Bible. Now that I'm not saying that there's things in your life that's going to be automatically fixed as soon as you read the Bible. I'm going to tell you something. You will learn in your own heart and mind how to adjust. We've got a lot of problems in this world that a whole lot of Bible reading get a whole, get rid of a whole lot of. Can you imagine if we really start? Are y'all concerned about the state of our young people in America? I'm concerned about the state of our older people in America. Where'd they learn the bad manners? Where'd they learn these things? They got it from everybody else. I'm concerned about our country, aren't you? How y'all know this? We need more Bible reading. It shouldn't just be a nice coffee table ornament. There's nothing wrong with having a Bible as a coffee table ornament. the preeminence of the word of God in a home, but it's more than something we put on the dash of our car. Hey, it works in us. It does a work in us. We received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. Now think about this. If you got a letter from somebody that give you directions of what to do, you'd say, well, I'm going to go do this. If it was to help you, he said, well, I'm going to do what this letter says. Well, God's love letters right before us. And if we be honest tonight, many of us have said no to the word of God more than we'd even want to admit. The next thing I want you to write this down. We just read it in our text in Romans 15 verse four. The Bible also is perfect. It is sure it is. I'm sorry. Bible gives patience, comfort, and hope. The Bible gives patience, comfort, And hope that's the difference in it and meant so many books. It says for what several things were written before time were written for our learning. By the way, Christians, you ought to be ever learning. Don't buy into the satanic lie of saying, I don't need to learn anything else. Adults, don't think you've arrived. You don't know everything about the Bible. I sure don't know everything about the Bible. I love to learn. We need to be learning. We need to be in constant learning. If you study the original education system in the United States, you know who was really involved in that? You know who Harvard was named after? A preacher. You go back and look at how they were founded. They were founded as preacher training in some of the highest places of learning. In fact, there's still seminaries in a lot of these places. Now they went a totally different direction. But education and learning and having a quest for knowledge is central to what we believe as Christians. We want our young people to learn, to understand, to be able to withstand the fiery darts of the evil one when he comes, and know what we're talking about, and not be as those who don't understand the word of God. But the Bible says that those in Berea were more noble than those because they studied the scriptures daily, whether they were so. We need to be like those Berean believers. Because the Bible tells us here, we get patience. How many of y'all need some patience tonight? I sure do. You ever needed comfort? One thing I've learned about, I preached a funeral this week. I have never, I'll confess something to you as your pastor. I've never got up at a funeral service and said, boy, I'm gonna knock this out of the park. Not once, not one time. I've preached, I don't know how many. You Google my name and you'll find my name beside everybody's funeral things. I'm like, my goodness. But I've never felt good because there's no words that I can say. But I've got a Bible full of words that offers comfort and hope that only God's Word can offer. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, to me, gives great comfort. It says, we do not sorrow as those who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died... I remember when I really got a hold of that, I said, oh man, this is... In fact, it even says at the very last of that chapter, wherefore comfort one another with these words. When you go to the graveside, you don't sorrow and say, oh, what are we gonna do? How are we gonna make, no, hey, there's coming a day when we'll see our loved ones again. How do I know that? Brother, that's just your opinion. Read the Bible. Read the Word, the Bible tells us this. And so it gives us, gives us this. Then Psalm 19 is a Psalm that, if you'll turn there real quickly, Psalm 19, verses seven and eight. I'm not gonna hold you real long. We're just gonna get through these I hope that this will help you and I hope be encouragement to you living for God because of the Bible When you get back to the Bible It is given by God. It is alive. It works in us It gives us patience comfort and hope and then Psalm 19 verses 7 and 8 and then stay in some goes more like a Psalm 119 which has a lot to say about God's Word The Bible says in Psalm 19 verse 7 and 8 that God's Word is perfect and It is sure, it is right, and it is pure. Look what it says. It says, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Wow, isn't that wonderful? Hey church, isn't that wonderful? Great It is perfect. It's the perfect Word of God That's a very convicting verse Verse 7 says the law the Lord is perfect converting the soul Whenever you heard the Word of God for the first time when you were a young child, maybe in Sunday school I had my grandma was my Sunday school teacher. I don't know how long she got through she had to have the meanest Sunday school class in the country Because if I told you who they were you said man, that was a rough class. I And I look back on that and we learned, I remember as a little boy learning how sinful I was and that bothered me. How did I know that? How does a child come to understand sin? Well, the Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. It is written upon our hearts. And so when you hear the word of God, you know that you don't live up to that. And so when you hear the law of God, in fact, we need to get back to preaching the law of God, that we are lawbreakers. There's too much pie in the sky, I think, Christianity. Oh man, we just kumbaya, we all love each other. Listen, we are lawbreakers in need of a law fulfiller. And that is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's the whole message. That is the whole story of Christianity, is that Jesus fulfilled the law. and that the Bible tells us here that it's perfect and it's pure. I thank the Lord tonight that He is the one that lived this. And I remember when I first heard about it, I said, oh man, I'm hurting, I'm in a mess. Well, we need to hear that law. The Bible says, what's the Ten Commandments? We know it, don't we? Our whole judicial system, y'all know, is founded on this. Everybody makes fun of God. They don't want anybody in church, they want to keep the Bible out. But we base our whole judicial system on right and wrong, on evil. You can't steal and you can't kill, right? You're not supposed to go against your neighbor, not supposed to harm them. You all right? Where do we get that from? The big thing today is, you know, don't, you know, the big, don't do anything, you know, there's a big Me Too movement. Where does all that, where does that stem from? It stems from the word of God. The word of God tells us how to treat our fellow man. Do you know that there's nowhere else that teaches that? It's found in the word of God. And what happens is, is we fall short of that. We say, wait a minute, I am falling short. I need something. In fact, when you read your Bible, you realize, oh man, I'm a sinner. In fact, if you read this great sermons that are preached in the word, the Bible says they were pricked to the heart. Why were they pricked to the heart? Because of that truth. And so it's perfect. It is pure. Now, if you take your Bible, turn real quickly to Psalm 19 or 119, I should say. Psalm 119, we're gonna look at a few places there. Go back in Psalm 119. Of course, this is a very big Psalm. Psalm 119, verse nine. And we're gonna read this, and many of you are gonna know these verses, you're gonna be familiar with these verses, but I wanna read them anyway. Verse nine says this. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. Did you know the word of God purifies our lives? There's nothing wrong with a young man or young woman trying to go out and get a job. There's nothing wrong with a young man trying to get an education, trying to do right and live right. But you know what we really need for our young people today? It literally says right here in the word. It says, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Y'all notice these ballplayers, they don't get in trouble much at the library. You notice that? You ever heard of this? Y'all know what I'm talking about. You see this famous ball player and say, man, he got pulled over for this and the police got him for that. Hey, I've noticed this. They're not studying for an exam. They wasn't teaching Sunday school. They wasn't at the youth group on Wednesday night. It's always someplace, y'all know this, where they should not have been. Well, how do we, where are we supposed to be? We're supposed to be, and I know it's, people say, oh, that's boring. Is it boring? I don't know about you all, but I think staying out of jail all my life, I've made an accomplishment. I don't think it's very boring. I'm glad of that tonight. I can go home and be in relative peace. If my dog will leave me alone, but probably relative peace. Thank God tonight. Let's read that again. It says wherewithal shall a young man and you can put your name there cleanse his way By taking heed thereto according to thy word Listening to God's Word God's Word purifies our lives. I Do something wrong with him and I read the Bible about to me quit doing that You lose a lot of things in my life that I used to think that you could do because of maybe what I heard how I was raised But then I read my Bible said no that doesn't line up That's not what the Bible says I was watching a documentary about World War II, because I'm boring like that, I guess. And I learned something I didn't know. In the country of Czechoslovakia, after World War II, when we had won, and Russia was encroaching Czechoslovakia, and the Americans were coming, the Germans really wanted the United States to capture them. The Czechoslovakians wanted the United States to capture them. They did not want the German soldiers to capture them or the Russian soldiers. Because they said this, they said 98% of people that were captured by the American soldiers survived. The percentage that they were captured by the Russian soldiers was about 18%, or some horrible. But I never knew that. That's why you see these videos, you all watch these old time videos, and they'll show the soldiers, they're raising their hands, because they know if you go to America, we're gonna feed you, we might even take you back to the country and give you a job. Can I say this to you tonight? I said, why did we do that? You know as well as I do why we did that. One of them was an atheist regime, and one of them was a Christian regime. Now, America's got its problems, but that comes from a Christian teaching of treating your fellow man. They said some of our generals would go in and pray with the men. Well, those days, it's a sad thing. That comes from the word of God, because the word of God purifies our lives. The word of God also, look at what Psalm 119, 105, real quickly. Y'all right, here we go. 105, y'all know this one, don't you? Psalm 119, 105. It says, thy word is a, anybody know that? Lamp unto my feet and a what? Light in my path. Thank God for that. And so here we see it directs our paths. Look, I'm just going to scratch the surface tonight. Y'all know this. We're talking about living for God. The word of God is a reason you and I live for God. It directs our paths. So many people are, I don't know what to do next. And what am I going to, and we get all upset about our directions. We get all upset about God's will. We get all upset about what should I do? Who should I marry? What job should I take? What should I move? Should I do this? Should I do that? What am I going to do next? Well, the Bible says, very clearly tells us, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Could it be tonight that we've not even gotten to God's word to see what God's word would want for us? That God would use his word to direct us, to guide us, to comfort us, to show us, to convict us? And so it directs our paths. Turn with me again, same chapter, Psalm 119 verse 165. Psalm 119 verse 165. It purifies, it's perfect, it directs our paths, and it also protects from offense. It protects from offense. In Psalm 119, verse 165, it says this, great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Nothing shall offend them. When you're in the Lord and your perception of yourself is rooted and grounded in God's word, and you realize who you are in Jesus Christ, you're not as upset about what everybody says or does around you because you know the Lord. And your peace and your comfort comes from the Lord. And somebody may try to hurt you, but if you are living for the Lord, and I remember I learned a great lesson about this several years ago, I was in a place, Some men that were incarcerated were screaming and hollering. I was with another preacher, and I remember we were dressed in suits and things, and I remember they were screaming out of these cells in a very big prison. And I remember them screaming, and they were saying, Hey, Jerry Falwell. Hey, Jimmy Swaggart. All you preachers are fake. I mean, it was pretty intense. And there was two sides to me. One, I thought, big boy, you better be gone. I hope you big, because I'm going to whip you. That's what I thought. Another side was, what am I doing here? And I kind of got a little scared. And I thought, well, now, Lord, if you call me to do this and you want me to, I'm not going to be offended by that. I've got to let that go. I learned a lesson right there. Hey, I've got to let that go, because I'm coming in the name of the Lord. Hey, let them make fun of me if they want to. You see, too often, folks, we get our feelings hurt Our life should not be about our feelings. Our life should be representative of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Bible says to endure hardness as a good soldier. You know, you and I are to endure hardness. We ought to be tough. Christians ought to be mentally, emotionally tough. Now it doesn't say you got to be rude or crude and some Christians act like it's their job to be, to set everybody straight. I'm going to talk about that tonight, but we are, we are protected according to God's word. I'd like you to take your Bible and also turn with me to Joshua chapter one real quickly. Joshua chapter one. God's word gives us true success and prosperity. If you do a study of history, if you do a study of Protestant belief and Protestant countries, Christian countries, and where what we believe takes root and hold, you'll see a lot of success. I want you to look with me at Joshua chapter 1. It says, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. And for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua's getting ready to take the land in Joshua chapter one. God's gonna use Joshua. I mean, the sun's gonna stand still. I mean, the walls of Jericho are gonna fall. I mean, it's just miraculous thing after miraculous thing. I mean, you see a pre-Bethlehem experience of Jesus Christ in the book of Joshua. It's 24 chapters of just one of the, I think, one of the most powerful, wonderful books in all of scripture. It's a wonderful book. And God says, Joshua, before you do this, and before you, Joshua's a warrior for God. Joshua's that man that God allowed to go into the land. Joshua, before you do all of this, Joshua, your secret to success is not gonna be the fact that you were mentored by Moses. It's not gonna be the fact that you are one of the roughest, toughest guys that's ever lived. It's not gonna be what your secret is. Your secret to success, Joshua, in becoming the leader and doing what God wants you to do is meditating on my word day and night. and night. That's the secret. That's how you're going to do this, Joshua. That's how you're going to overcome. That's why the sun's going to stand still. That's how the walls are going to fall. If you read the book of Joshua, they did what God told them to do and the walls fell. And when they didn't do what God told them to do, they did not have success. It gives us the pattern for success. Now, some people use that as a crutch of saying, well, if I live by the word of God, then I'll become rich. And we see this on television, you know, we see, have you seen your seed to me? That's not what we're talking about tonight. I'm not talking about a word of faith. That's not what we're talking about. I'm talking about living according to biblical principles. We're talking about reading the word of God, staying in the word of God, living for God, because God's word shows us how to live for him in a methodical every day, day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, living our lives and staying in the word of God. Many people can do this for a little while, but they cannot do it continually. God told Joshua, don't turn to the left or to the right. In other words, don't get distracted by everything that's going on. And boy, he had some distractions. Don't let everything discourage you. Don't be dismayed, he tells Joshua. We use that verse a lot of times at graduation ceremonies. When there's some big happening in somebody's life because, in fact it says, you've not passed this way heretofore. You're gonna need me every step of the way. And so God's word tells us here that it will give us, God's word is how we'll have true success. Most of us want our children, our grandchildren, our friends, our loved ones to be successful, right? I want to be successful, don't you? I want you to be successful. I want all y'all to get big raises and make big money and tie into the church. I mean, I want you to do great. I want you to have what God wants you to have. And I think everybody wants that. Now you got to be careful. It's not materialism. It's not things. But what does God want? What does God want for our lives? That's true success. And then if you turn back to also Psalm 119 real quickly, in verse 130, we got two more, we'll go home. I'll get you out for eight if y'all hang in there, if y'all be good. Y'all gonna be good? Psalm 119, verse 130. By the way, you can read all of Psalm 119. You'll get a good dose of this. But in Psalm 119, verse 130, we see here it gives understanding. He gives understanding. Have you ever felt dumb or uneducated or don't know what's going on? You ever felt like about the time you figured out the rules, they changed them? Well, the Bible says this, the entrance of thy words, giveth light. It giveth understanding unto the simple. I know a man, in fact, he was a pastor of our church growing up. If I understand right, he learned how to read by reading the Bible. He was an uneducated man, but I thought he was one of the best preachers I'd ever heard, even to this day. Tremendous preacher. I don't think he had the front four teeth in his mouth. I remember as a kid thinking, man, you're kind of making fun in the back of your mind. Man, I want to like, this guy's funny looking. But hey, I get under conviction when he preached. How does that happen? How does somebody that's maybe unlearned, in fact, the Bible says that unlearned men turn the world upside down. How did that happen? How is it that when you read the Word of God, it seems like God takes the small things, the little things, the people that don't understand. I'm gonna tell you how, because the Bible says here, it giveth understanding unto the simple. No matter how intelligent somebody is, if they don't understand, if they won't come and listen and submit themselves to the Word of God, it doesn't matter how brilliant they are. It doesn't matter how brilliant they are. It giveth understanding unto the simple. Hey, the Bible gives understanding, the Word of God. If you're saved tonight and you start reading the Bible, let's not say you're gonna be an expert at everything in the Bible. You might not be able to sit down and write some dissertation about some theological subject. You might not be able to expound, but you can have some understanding of the word of God that'll shape your life forever. I mean, it'll clean your life up. And I know I'm talking to the crowd on a Sunday night that knows that. And then lastly tonight, Psalm 12 and verse six. God, in Psalm 12 and verse six, just in case, And by the way, I'm not, I'm scratching the surface. I mean, you could read and study and read and study and read and study. God says it over and over about his word. The workmen need not be ashamed, rightly divided the word of truth. But the word, and if you want to write this down, Psalm 12 verse seven, the Bible, the word of God is eternally valuable. That's the thing now, this is different than this book that we have tonight and any other book. A lot of other books, they may go by the wayside. They'll go out of print. I love books. I'm looking for books all the time, and they'll go out of print. You won't be able to find them. Books that, they're very powerful books, and I enjoy them, but there's nothing like this book. Listen to this verse, Psalm 12, verse six. The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Hey, this Bible, the Bible says the word of God is forever settled in heaven. The Bible says it is a foundation. I mean, I could go on and on tonight about the Bible. And I know I haven't preached a lot about the Bible. Many folks, I mean, I've taken a stand. I've defended the Bible against a lot of attacks. People attack the versions that we use and people wanna attack the Bible. I've kind of been known for that, but I don't really do a lot of that because let me say this to you tonight. This is a lion. This is a tiger. I don't have to defend the tiger. I just gotta turn it loose and let it do its work. It's God's word. It is powerful. I have to follow up with this book. You and I both have to line up with this book tonight, and the reason I live for God, one of the main reasons you and I ought to live for God is not to go through some duty, but when I read this book, when I look at this book, when I meditate in this book, man, why am I not living for God? In fact, I say this, when people tell me they believe the Bible, I say, are you sure? You sure you really believe it? Because if you really believe it, That's what you really are basing your eternal salvation. In fact, many of you tonight, if I ask you, how do you know you're saved? How do you know that we base it on God's word? The Bible says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I take God at his word. If somebody comes to me and attacks my life, they'd have a lot to attack. But if they attack God's word, I say, look, I'm taking God, his word. I'm not deserving of heaven, but God and his word promises those who believe. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 3.36. I remember as a young man doubting my salvation and reading John 3.36 and John 1.12 over and over and over and over. and over and over and say, God, is it really true? God, I'm trusting my eternal soul, my eternal destiny on these verses in your word. John 5, 24, John 3, 16, John chapter three, John chapter one. Hey, the book of John. Let's read it. I go on and on tonight. We live for God. I remember reading that thing. Oh God, I need to live for you. I need to live my life. Your word has given me, your word has shown me, your word has guided me. I'll close with this little story. When Miss Cindy graduated PCA, Dr. Day, any of you know Dr. Day? His wife gives Cindy a devotional book. That devotional book had little devotions, and we were married pretty young, and when we were married, we took that devotional book. When I went off to Bible college, and I remember, I forget the name of the book, and I'd gotten called to preach. I was still learning, still dumb as a rock, still kind of am, amen? Don't y'all say amen right there. But I remember we would take that devotional book out, and she would read it, and I'll be honest with you, I'd never really heard. I didn't really, you know, I rededicated my life to the Lord later on. I hadn't really heard about having devotional life. Cindy had devotions, and we started having devotions, and we'd read, and I remember we'd take Ms. Day, I called it Ms. Day's book, and we'd take it out. I was getting tears when we'd have those devotions, because it seemed to me that every day we read a verse, or every night, that that verse had some impact and something going on in our life at that time. I would look at that devotional book and I'd be like, what? How is this possible? This is weird. And then I realized, you know why? Because it had God's word in it. I started, man, it's God's word. And the more I got into it, I said, you know, I think I'm gonna read a few other verses around those verses. And I found out it wasn't that devotional book. That book was great. It wasn't Dr. Dave, the priest appreciated him very much. It was the word of God that was molding us. I used to say this, I'd left Cook Chapel and I'd say, well, what did Pastor Johnny say? What would he say? And finally, and we'd say, what would your mom and dad do? And I'd call my mom, I'd say, well, Mom, what would you think? And finally it dawned on me, I think I'll just open up this Bible and say, Lord, I love all those people, but what do you want? And when I did that, that changed my life forever. I never got over it. I hope that we never get over it tonight. Let's all stand with our head bowed and our eyes closed. Heavenly Father, we thank you tonight. Lord, I know this is a crowded Sunday night. Many of them have forgotten more Bible verses than I know.