And it's going to be an interesting study. We're going to try and get it not just historically, but doctrinally and spiritually correct. There's a lot in there. But Revelation 21, the last book of the Bible that Jesus Christ gave to his servant John to show him the things that would shortly come to pass. And we're about to enter the new year 2020. And I'm telling you folks, this is it. This is the decade when God's going to give perfect vision to all of humanity and the angels as to what his plans are to wind up this work. It's the third millennium. It'll be the third decade. That's 3-3 and about halfway through at 33 and a half, he's going to begin to cut off the wickedness of the world just like they cut his son off at 33 and a half. And finally, What he's going to do, his plan to fix everything since the creation has fallen. Revelation 21 verse 1 gives John a vision, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea and in this creation now our earth is fallen and corrupted and we see weeds and the trees get diseases and animals and people get diseases and die. We look up in the heaven and there's not just the heaven around the earth where we can go where there's oxygen and live, but there's a second heaven above it which is dark and it's a vacuum and without a space suit, you're not gonna last for very long up there and it's dangerous and we read in other places of the Bible that in that dark region is where the fallen angels are under chains of darkness. and God's gonna fix all that and have a brand new heaven and a new earth and the new earth won't have the corruption and the stains of sin anymore and disease and the new heaven won't have the darkness, it will be all light around it and there will be no more sea because right now the earth only less than, well, about a little less than one third is actually earthy where you can stand on it and of the earthy part, About half of that's shot with wilderness and deserts and Arctic areas you can't live on. And God's gonna make it like it's supposed to be on Earth where people can walk. It'll probably be 80% land and maybe 20% nice, beautiful little lakes around there that are freshwater lakes, no more sea with salt water in it, which is harmful to man. You can't drink salt water and live. It will kill you. They call it the desert of the sea. If you were out in the middle of the ocean and you tried to drink, you would die of thirst for drinking ocean water. There'd be no more of that. It's going to redo it. It's going to be a recreation. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, and God's gonna make a city, and he's gonna make it up there in heaven, and it's not gonna have any of the components of the first earth in it, and it's gonna be made by the same hand of God that made the angels and the first man Adam, and gave us the last Adam, Jesus, and he's gonna make this beautiful city, and it's gonna come down out of heaven, and it's prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, and the great voice could be the Lord Jesus, it could be all the angels, behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And right now we're separated from God because our sins have separated us from God. And sin causes that dark second heaven and that great void between us and God. But once he recreates everything and does away with death and does away with sin and does away with the devil, he can move in real close and nestle with us and be our God. And when that happens, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things. of the first creation and the fall that came with sin and the stain of disease and discomfort, they're all passed away. Death is gone. Sorrow is gone. Crying is gone. No more tears. It's going to be a time of joy in the presence of the living and the holy God who is life immortal and life eternal. And He dwells in the light that now redeemed and recreated men can dwell unto and approach. And verse, how do we know this is true? And he that sat upon the throne said this, behold, I, the living God, make all things new. Of course, we're looking forward to that day. That day is probably going to come a little more than a thousand years from now because he's got to do the work of the millennium and he's got to do the work of the white throne judgment. And it's a ways off, but it's sure and certain because these things are written in the scriptures of truth and the scriptures cannot be broken. And we look forward to that new day. But right now, in a couple of days, we look forward to a new year. And you know, God makes things new even in our lives. He lets us wake up in the morning and we have a new day ahead of us and a new morning. And we have a new week every seven days. And we have a new month every 30 days. And we have a new year. God likes to get us prepared for something that will be new. By the way, when he makes something new in this recreation, we all like new things. Just add Christmas. Like to get, I mean, I've never gotten this. You see on TV it happens. Somebody actually gives a new car to someone for Christmas. I've never seen any such thing in my life, but I bet you would like it if you walked out and somebody, your gift was a little box with keys in it, and they said, come out in the driveway, and there's a new car. It'd be exciting, wouldn't it? That day. Four years from now, what would the thing look like? Today, things that are made new get old. But in the presence of God, things that are made new stay new. And when God makes this new body and this new heaven and this new earth, it ain't gonna age anymore. It's gonna be fixed and stay that age forever and ever with the glow and the dew of youth on it. Your new bodies will be new forever and ever. The home that he gives you, that mansion in heaven, ain't gonna get old and one day you're gonna have to polish up the wood again. It's gonna stay new all by itself. In the presence of God, there's that renewing energy and power. What he makes new stays new forever and ever. That's pretty interesting. That's gonna be nice. But right now, He's making a new year for us. And many of us make these New Year's resolutions. Now, I want to say, as I've said before, and we do this every year, you know what the best way to spend the New Year is? With God in the Old Book. That's what you want to do. And I want to look at it like a reporter would. Who, what, when, where, and why should we do these things? Who should do this? When should we do it? How should we do it? And the reason you want to do it, first off, you don't want to know why to do it. Go to the very first Psalm that's given in the biggest book of the Bible, the book of the Psalms. Love the Psalms. They're just the heart of God to the heart of man. You want to get your heart tuned up like a violinist tunes up his strings? You want to get to the Psalms. And the very first Psalm that he gives, the first word is blessed. Yes, God wants to bless. He doesn't want to curse. God wants to give. He doesn't want to take. God wants to reward. He doesn't want to punish. And the first word in the first Psalm is blessed. And God wants to bless a man. What kind of man? That doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly. He doesn't stand in the way of sinners. He's not in the back alley with the guys rolling dice and smoking weed. He wants, get away from that stuff. He doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful at the universities and mock the truths of God's word. No, the blessed man, verse two, his delight is in the law of the Lord. This is God's word. God's words are the law of eternity and the universe. They will endure forever. These aren't gonna fade away and be replaced. And when you delight in God's word and you meditate in that day and night, you get a blessing. Why do you wanna do it? You wanna do it to be blessed. Long, long time ago when these men came over here and they decided, we need to start a new country. We need to start a country on a declaration of independence with people that have rights that are from their creator, not from us as government officials, but those rights come from above. There was a philosopher in England by the name of John Locke, and he wrote a famous book called The Two Treatises of Government. And that book was used to help guide some of the founding fathers as to which way to go, as to set up a government here. And they said, you know, we need to set up a republic. A republic is based on law. It's not based on the will of the people, it's based on a solid law. Because sometimes the will of the people can get a little out of hand. See, if there is a shortage and we take a vote, is it all right to steal to provide for family? Yo, let's steal. But the law says thou shalt not steal. We need laws. We need bedrocks and guardrails to keep people on the right way. And so as he wrote this book, He was saying before he wrote it, this is what he wrote, he says, the Bible, he had been reading as a philosopher, and he read the Bible, the King James Bible, and he said, the Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God upon men. Blessed is the man that looks at the law of the Lord. It has God as its author. It has salvation for its end. It has truth without any mixture of error for its matter. It is all pure. It is all sincere. It's nothing too much and nothing wanting. It's just right. That's what one of the greatest philosophers that ever lived wrote about God's Word. Why do you want to do it? You want to do it to be blessed. There was an author that wrote this poem It's anonymous. This guy writes a lot of stuff. And I remember Oliver at his first concert was talking about the number of things that Anonymous wrote. And he wrote this too. The book, the Bible, contains the mind of God. It shows the state of man. It gives the way of salvation. It reveals the doom of sinners and the bliss of believers. The doctrines in it are holy, its precepts are binding, its history is true, its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and to comfort and to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, it is the pilgrim's staff, it is the pilot's compass, it is the soldier's sword, and it is your Christian character. In the Bible, paradise is restored, heaven is opened, and the gates of hell are disclosed. Christ is its grand theme. Our good is its design, and the glory of God is its end. It should fill your memory, rule your heart, and guide your feet. Read it slowly. Read it frequently. Read it prayerfully. It's given in this life and it will be opened in the judgment and it will endure eternally. It involves the highest responsibility. It will reward a believer's labor and will also condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents. You know why you want to read the book this year? To be blessed. You want a second reason why you read it? Go to John chapter 5. Another great book of the Bible. We looked at Revelation, great book. We looked at Psalms, great book. Another great book in the Bible, John. There are seven great books in the Bible that you need. You need John, Romans, Psalms, Proverbs, Genesis, Isaiah, and Revelation. And those seven books alone will give you a foundation that will take you from here to eternity with good character. John chapter 5. You want to read it to be blessed. The second reason you want to read the book, Jesus was speaking one day after he had raised an impotent man up from a pool who had been lying there for 38 years. And that man went around and told everybody, it's amazing, I'm walking, it's amazing. And the religious people were upset. And therefore the Jews sought to persecute Jesus and to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. And Jesus went on and he began to explain to him that the Father loveth the Son. And the Father judges no man but gives all judgment to the Son, that all men should honor the Son as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which have sent him. And the problem with you religious people, you don't have his word abiding in you, verse 38. For whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. And then verse 39, a great verse. Why do you want to read the book? Search the scriptures, Jesus says, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. He's talking to people who had the Bible from Genesis to Malachi, and they didn't see him. And in introduction to the Bible by Norman Geisler and William Nix, here's what they wrote. The law of Moses gives the foundation for Christ. That's Messiah. Christ is Messiah. The history of Israel shows the preparation for Christ, for the Messiah. As the nation was preparing to give birth to the child that shall be born and the son that will be given. The poetry in the Psalms and the Proverbs and Song of Solomon expresses the aspiration for Christ and the Messiah. The prophecy of all the prophets proclaim the expectation of the Christ that's going to come. Search the Scriptures, they testify of me. Everywhere you look you'll find Jesus Christ in this book, if you just look with an open heart. The Gospels then, for you and I who live in the New Testament, record the historical manifestation of the Messiah. And we learn his name is Jesus, and he walked in Nazareth, and he walked in Judea, and he walked in Galilee. And the book of the Acts relates the propagation of Christ, how he kept his ministry going through regular people like you and me. And the epistles give the interpretation of Christ and everything that he did so we can have an understanding why did God send him and what is it exactly that he did for us. And the book of Revelation describes the consummation and the recreation of all things by Christ. The book's about Jesus Christ. How can you miss that? You want to read this book to know Christ? To know Christ is eternal life. And there's no other way to have it. And the same author, John, wrote a little book in the back of the Bible. Go there, it's 1 John. I'm giving you familiar verses that you should probably have underlined in your Bible so that you can share this with somebody who doesn't know the truth. And some of the great passages you take people to because of the confusion of religion and thinking, boy, if I just live a good life and one day God will measure the good against the bad and do a little bit better and then I'll be okay in God's eyes. And here in 1 John 5 and verse 11, this is the record that God have given to us eternal life And this life is in His Son. Search the scriptures, in them you think you have eternal life. They testify of me. I'm the one that gives the life. You can't get it from the book, you get it from me. The book points you to me, and you come to me and I give you the life. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. What kind of life? Eternal life. You might have physical life, you might have temporal life, you might have breathing, earthly life, but you don't have eternal life. There's only two kinds of people. And you need the Son to have that eternal life. Verse 13, And these things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. And I also wrote them, that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. If you have any doubt, read this. Why do you want to read it in the New Year? You want to know Christ. You want to be blessed. Another reason you want to do it is you need light. Go to Psalm 119. The longest chapter in the Bible is in the book of the heart, Psalms. The poetry book that speaks to the heart. And the longest chapter in that book that speaks to the heart speaks of the truth of God's word, because that's what your heart needs. Your heart needs the words of God. And a good thing to do in New Year is spend some time with God's words. And in Psalm 119, by the way, this is all available with the poems and everything I have typed out here if anybody wants it afterwards. It's about five or six pages. We'll get them to you later. But along the way, Psalm 119, verse 105, why do I do it? I want to do it to be blessed. I want to do it to know Christ. I want to do it to get some light in my life. Psalm 119, 105, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Every day when we wake up, we're going to get out of bed. We're going to take some steps into the new day. We need light. Just as we need physical light, we need spiritual light. Same Psalm 130, verse 130. Psalm 119, verse 130. The entrance of thy words giveth light. It, that's when you allow them to enter, giveth understanding to the simple. General Robert E. Lee, who was one of the greatest military men in the history of this nation, and he was a Christian. He was a good, good man. And he fought on the right side of the Civil War, which was the South. The wrong side won, which was the North. That's another story. We can talk about it sometime. But getting back to it, we've all been lied to about the Civil War. What else is new? The victors write the history, they rewrite the things. But anyways, getting back to Lee, reading the Bible, he said, in all my distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength. And when he surrendered to the North, he said, my biggest fear is they're going to rewrite the history books and people are going to eventually lose the Bible. And you notice what happened in the north, we sort of won, and we got all the commerce, and the south stayed with the Bible. And so we won physically, they won spiritually, and the Bible belts down south. And you're better off with a Bible than you are with big factories in the north. How the city's working out up here, by the way, folks. That's another story. But light, we need light. Another thing the Bible will do for you, and why you want to read it in this new year, go to Luke's Gospel, Chapter 4. It'll bless you. It will reveal Christ to you. It will give you light every day as you walk through this dark world in confusion spiritually, not knowing what decision to make. And you can ask that book to help you, and prayer to help you on any decision you have. I remember Robert Cook, who was the president of the King's College. It was a Christian college back in the 1920s and 30s and 40s when they would teach the Bible to young men and women. And he started to have the parents of some of the kids begin to attend the college to learn some Bible. And a lot of the parents, some of them, were businessmen. And he would say to the businessman, you know what you need to do? He says, I know you're taking care of business at the shop and the phone comes, rings and a letter comes. He says, pray and ask God for some guidance and some light as to how to answer the phone and how to get through this letter. He said, God wants to guide you there too. He's not absent from you at the workplace. If you just let him in, you need some light. And another thing that you need, Luke chapter four, verse, Jesus was teaching here. It begins around verse 16 when he came to Nazareth. And as it had been his custom, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. By the way, Christian, it is our custom to go to the house of worship on the New Testament Sabbath day, if you will, the Lord's day. You know what he did? He read, it says right there in that verse, and he stood up to read. He stood up to read. Is it your custom to sit down and read, or stand up and read, or kneel down and read on the Lord's day? That's a good thing you want to do in the new year. And he gives this long and this beautiful sermon, and he teaches some things about prophecy, and verse 32, And they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power. Verse 36. They were all amazed, and they spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! For with authority and power he commandeth. And the word and the commandments of God have power in them. And you're going to need power. One of the greatest military men in the history of the world was Napoleon Bonaparte. Prager University, you can go check one of the teachings he has on Napoleon as to what a brilliant commander he was. And I know that they mock him out today. It's typical to mock things, but Napoleon knew about the Bible and he had read a little bit of Bible. Now, sadly, I don't know if he ever took it into his heart, but here's what he said about it. He was a conqueror and he said, this Bible is no mere book. It's a living power that conquers anyone that opposes it. He knew the power of that book. He was afraid to handle the Jews or do anything because of the warnings that were in that book. He knew this book has power. Do you know it has power? That's another reason you'll want it in the new year, is to get some power. Now, we saw why she would do it. Who should read this book? I think just believers should read it. Well, turn to Deuteronomy, chapter 32. In the law of Moses, the book of doctrine that was given to all of them to summarize everything God had given Moses was Deuteronomy. And Deuteronomy means the second giving of the law. And every time Jesus battled with the devil, he quoted from the book of Deuteronomy. And one of the great chapters in Deuteronomy is chapter 32, when God speaks and he says, In Deuteronomy 32, verse 1, Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. You know who should read the book? Everybody on planet earth. It's real simple. God gave this book as a gift to the world. And yes, Christians are doubly blessed, but the world's greatest blessing would come when they open this book. And through the centuries, anyone that began to approach this book was blessed when he began to open his mind and his heart to this book. When he didn't approach it with prejudice, but he approached it with an open mind and an open heart. The book of Isaiah, God said the same thing in Isaiah 1 verse 2, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829. And he said this, the Bible is the book above all other books to be read at all ages and in all conditions of life. His desire was every American had a Bible and a chance to read it. The Continental Congress had just a few years earlier passed the first law for the first book that they would pay for to go into the public schools and it was the Bible. The King James Bible was the first book the Continental Congress paid for. Because this is the book above all others to be read at all ages and in all conditions of life. Who should read it? Everyone. Also, though, not only should earthlings read it, of course God's children should read it. Back in that book of Deuteronomy, and I'll give you this, you can have it, I'll just read them for you now. In Deuteronomy chapter four, verse one, it says, now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and the judgments that I teach you, for to do them that ye may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth to you. The great wisdom book in the Bible is the book of Proverbs, one of those, seven essential books for you to get into as a Christian in this new year. And in the book of Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 20, my son, God says, attend to my words and incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes. I mean, if you're willing to read a newspaper every day, for goodness sakes, Why don't you put the Bible first and read that? Newspapers are written by men. And they would be stained enough if they were even written by good men, because even good men at their best are still men, and they still have some error and confusion in them. Our newspapers today are not written by good men. They're written by evil, wicked men. For those of us who live in America, the greatest enemy of the American people today is the media. Reading a newspaper is destructive to you. Watching newscasts are destructive. There's absolutely no reason for you to watch any major newscast on any major network or any major morning show, Good Morning America, or the Today Show. All you're getting are propaganda and lies, propaganda and lies, propaganda and lies against God, against the Bible, against Jesus, and against the Constitution that was based on the Bible. Read this book. Start your day with this book, The Breakfast of Champions. Who else should read this book beside all earthlings and beside all of God's children, all of God's teachers? That's me. If you're a mother and father, you want to teach your kids, you need to read this book. They need to hear the truth from you. Oh, I'll let them decide. They're foolish. Children are foolish. They don't know how to make a good decision. You've got to help them know the right way. Your job is to instruct them into the ways of truth, to speak to them, my son, hear thou my sayings, which I got from my Father in heaven, and I've passed them to you. I'm not going to let you wander around this dark, confused world. There are more bad things to grab out there than there is good. I'm going to put apples of gold in your path. 1 Timothy 4, verse 11, Paul writing to Timothy, these things command and teach. Timothy, till I come, give attendance to reading. You want to make a New Year's resolution? Your resolution is you're going to attempt to read through this book. Now listen, you might not be able to do it in a year. That's okay. Get started. Maybe it takes two years. Maybe you can only do a chapter a day. It takes three years. God will watch you. God will see the thoughts and intents of your heart. If you die before the three years are up, but you've been faithful, God will reward you and give you the extra chapters when he meets you and says, I saw you trying and I know you couldn't finish your course. Let me finish it for you. Here it is. But if you've never made an attempt, how can he? All of God's children. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read. That's who. When? When should you do this? Matthew chapter 6. Jesus will give you the answer. So we saw why we should do it. To be blessed. To learn of Jesus. To get light. To get power. We saw who should do it as God's children and God's teachers. When should we do it? Matthew chapter 6. Jesus teaching his disciples to pray. Verse 9, After this manner, therefore, pray, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, as we're reading about in Revelation 21. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Your spiritual food is this book. It's the food to nourish you and sustain you. And what you need to do with this book is two things. Go to Revelation chapter 1 again. as the new year approaches and you want to spend some time in the new year with the book of ages, the old book, the eternal book that was before the heavens and the earth were made and will exist after the first heavens and the first earth are passed away. This book is forever settled in heaven. You'll see the original one in heaven one day. The originals were never on earth. They're in heaven. God wouldn't put the originals in our hand. We'd bust them up like we did the Ten Commandments the first time he put them in Moses' hand and you're no better than Moses. Revelation chapter 1 verse 3. What do you do? Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy to keep those things which are written therein. For the time is at hand. Folks, this is it. I know nobody wants to hear it. I'm sorry. This is it, it's 2020. God's gonna wind this thing up. I'll take all bets here and in the millennium. I knew it wasn't in the year 2000. I knew it wasn't in 2010. I know this is the decade where he winds it up. This is it. It's sure. It's certain. The time's at hand. And what you want to do is you want to both read at home and hear in the worship services the words of God. God has brought us together that we may have the fellowship of saints, that we may, like iron, sharpen one another and pray together, lifting up holy hands. And what do we do? We read and we hear. We read at home and we hear at church. We read at church and we hear at home. We do both. We just mix it together and weave the fabric together, the warp and the woof of God's Word through our lives. And how are we going to read it? Like Jesus said in Matthew 4, for every word. You want a purpose to read through the entire Bible. You want to find a good Bible reading plan. I have a number of Bible reading plans here that have been written by others. I have personal Bible reading plans I have come up with for myself. I come up with people, Ron Mueller and I sat one day, I came up with a personal Bible reading plan for him. I can help you tailor that plan. Some read more. Some read less. John Quincy Adams, sixth president, in addition to saying that the Bible should be read by everybody in all conditions of life, he went on to continue and he said, the Bible's not just meant to be read once or twice and then laid aside, but it's meant to be read in small portions every day. You need it daily. How often do you guys fast from physical food? You don't have to answer. You don't have to answer. Then you shouldn't fast from spiritual food. And if you're going to pick one to skip, I'll tell you which is the better to skip. Skip the physical and get the spiritual. Because your spirit is more important than your body. Body is little. Godliness profiteth all to eternity. Make sure you get your spiritual food each and every day. And which Bible should we read? Well, Ecclesiastes, the companion book to Proverbs, that wise book. He wrote like an appendix to it called Ecclesiastes. Not as necessary for you to read as Proverbs, you definitely need the book of Proverbs, but Ecclesiastes, In so many places, he talks about what it's like to live on planet Earth, and often it gets you kind of sad, but every so often he'll throw an apple of gold in there, he'll throw a nugget, he'll throw a handful on purpose, and in the 8th chapter, which is like the chapter of the new birth, is a picture, it's two circles, one on top of another. When you stand it up, it's an eight. When you lay it down, it looks like eternity. God made it look that way because it's a picture of the new birth and those with a new birth live eternally. And he says in that chapter, verse one, who is as the wise man? Who knoweth the interpretation of the thing? How many wise men have you met that can really interpret something? There aren't too many, but go on and they'll give you an idea. A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, the boldness of his face shall be changed. I counsel thee, keep the king's commandment, and that in regard to the oath of God. Verse 4, where the word of a king is, there is power. Who may say to him, what doest thou? The book you want to read is the book that God gave. Now, this is a great irony that I found, but back in the 19th century, in the late 1800s, there was a scholar that lived in England, and he was a rationalist, and he was a deist, but he said this before he did something crazy later in his life. Once in a while, even a blind squirrel gets an acorn. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. And it's interesting, he wrote this, he wrote, thoughts are wedded to words as necessarily as the soul is to the body. I mean, if you want to take a thought, you've got to marry it to the words. just like God had to link the souls to the body. There aren't souls floating around here, and there aren't bodies walking around with souls. They're linked together, they're joined together, and God's thoughts needed to be put in words, is what he was saying. Now, curiously, this crazy guy is Bishop Westcott, who went on to then lead into the writing of the perversions, I don't know what happened to him later in life, but he got that right early on like the blind squirrel. And he's right. Dr. Kuyper took his words a little further and he said, here's the truth. Music needs notes. Mathematics needs figures. Thoughts needs words. It's not the thoughts that are inspired in the Bible, it's the words that are inspired. You need the right book. Where the word of a king is, there is power. This is the new year, you want the old book. Go to Jeremiah chapter 6. Jeremiah chapter 6. Curiously, verse 16, Thus saith the Lord, here's what God says, open quotes, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way? And walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. You know, Solomon had written back in the book of Ecclesiastes, where the word of a king is, there is power in regard to the oath of God. And that book opened in chapter 1, verse 1, the words of the preacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem. And it's very interesting. Jerusalem is a nine-letter word that breaks down into two words. It has the word James and the word rule. And Jesus said, Jerusalem is the city of the great King. And you put that together, the great King James rule. That would be the old path, the old Bible. It's a King James Bible. It's not an NIV. It's not a Revised Standard. It's not the New English Version. It's not even the New King James Version. It's the old path. God says, there's the good way. I'm telling you, go there. You'll find rest for your souls. The testimony. of a Christian is usually two steps. The first one is he finds Jesus as the Christ. By the way, I have monthly planning guides for you, in case you want to write your Bible readings down in here like I do every single day, and where I am, and they're out there free for you in the back. And it says right on there, Grace and Truth Church, where Jesus is the Christ, that's where grace comes from. And we study the King James Holy Bible, that's where truth comes from. Truth is found in God's Word. And it's found in the old book, the rule of the great King James. God chose it that way. You know what he said in Proverbs 30 verse 5? Every word of God is pure. Every English word in this book is pure. The cute story I heard about this girl, she took singing lessons from a famous vocal teacher, great singer who became a great teacher. And he came to her recital that she sang one day and she wanted to know what he thought of her singing. So she asked her friend, what did he say? And the friend, very loyal, said, well, he said you sang heavenly. And she probed, is that exactly what he said? Well, not exactly, but that's what he meant. And the girl kept pressing, well, come on, tell me exact words that he used. Well, his exact words were, that was an unearthly noise. Words are important. Somebody trying to reinterpret the thought isn't gonna work. God gave exact words that he wants. Reed Buckley, he was the younger brother of William F. Buckley, and he was a brilliant man like his brother, and he trained professional speakers. That was his job. And this is what he wrote, any English, any born English, you're born English-speaking, whether you're a guy or a girl, a born English-speaking son or daughter of the Christian West who has not savored, indeed soaked him or herself in the King James Holy Bible is irreparably ignorant and culturally deprived. English professors speak of the King James Bible as the height of the English language. I'm not surprised. It came down from heaven and God gave it to us on Mount Zion, which is above all things. It's the purest form of English ever spoken. The King's English. In foreign lands like China, where they teach English as a second language, they use the English of the King James Bible. They don't use American English. They use English English from the King James Bible. Amos Wells. just as we approach this new year, and we've seen a lot of reasons about this book. Why? To read it to be blessed, to know Christ, to get light, to get power. Who should read it? Well, if you're on planet Earth, you better pick that book up at least once, because that book will be used in the judgment. If you're God's child, you won't have any excuse. I want every one of you to get an A in Bible reading. So just put your mind to try to read that book through once, and I'll help you come up with a plan. We have some plans for you. And if you're a teacher of God's Word, woe to you if you don't read through this book. And when? Every day. And what to do? You want to read it and hear it. And how to do it? Every word. Don't skip the words. Go through them slowly, prayerfully, and which book? We know it's God's book. And Amos Wells wrote a poem. He was a Christian, and he was like many American Christian, went to church, heard a few sermons, went on the next six days, came back to church. Had never really tried reading the Bible. And then he made a New Year's resolution to do it once, and after doing it he wrote this poem. And he said, I supposed I knew my Bible. I would read it piecemeal, hit or miss. A bit of John and Matthew and there a snatch of Genesis. Some chapters in Isaiah, certain Psalms. Ah, the 23rd. Ah, the 12th of Romans, the 1st of Proverbs. Yeah, sure, I knew God's Word. But then I found that faithful reading was a different thing to do. The way was unfamiliar when I read the Bible through. Hey, you who like to play at Bible and dabble here and there and kneel and yawn and hurry through their superficial prayer, you who treat the crown of writings as you treat no other book, just a paragraph disjointed and a crude, impatient look, this year why not try a worthier procedure? Try the full and the faithful view. And you'll kneel in very rapture when you read the Bible through You want to spend this new year with the old book? Anonymous wrote the final poem he writes a lot of good stuff Another year, our future path lies hidden and the shadows seem to fall across the way. Read on! A light before thee shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Another year, the days grow evil with darkened threats that Satan sends. Fear not! Our Lord has written, I am with you to the very end. Another year, the land is parched. Our souls search for the precious grain. Pray on! Elijah's God will answer with manna and the latter rain. Another year, we wait with eager longing till the midnight hour comes apace. Look up! Redemption's day is dawning. We'll soon see the Savior's face. You want to have a good year? Spend the new year with the Old Book. Let's pray. Father, thank you. For Jesus, the Word of God with a capital W. And thank you that he finished his course and he gave unto us the words that you gave him. And we can be sanctified by thy word with a little w and thy word is truth. Help us this year to draw near. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. It's 292.