All right, if you have your Bibles, 2 Timothy chapter 3, 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3, And we'll start there in just a moment. On the back table on this side, for our Sunday school lesson, we talked about a couple of things as far as the, we're calling it the glorious history of the King James Bible. And we did part one in Sunday school. And we basically came up to the late 1500s. talking about some of the history. So there's some sample, they're big cards there, but there's some information on there that show you. So this year, 2025 is the 500th year of the Hebrew Masoretic, I think it's the Ben Hamid, version that in 1525, 1524, 1525, for the Masoretic, they took a long time. And that 1525 version was the basis of the Old Testament for the King James Bible. So there's a placard about that. Also, there's a placard that talks a little bit about the Gutenberg Press. We talked about that in the Sunday School Hour. And the Gutenberg Press was very important because up until that time, there basically wasn't movable print. It's hard for me to imagine that. But up until that time, everything was hand copied. So think about that as far as your Bible. This afternoon, just try to do the book of Matthew. All right, just hand copy it. And you're like, no, I'm not. But just take the book of Jude, all right? Take the book of Jude and hand copy it. And think about the whole Bible, that's how it had to be handed down. So the Gutenberg press changed that, revolutionized how we could have the Bible, because it could be more mass produced. So there's a number of different things. And then I think I have a placard about the Wycliffe Bible, and it has a sample there. And all of those are very important tonight. I'll try to have some more, because we're going to be talking about other Bibles leading up to the King James Bible. And I think it all helps us in seeing how God used men because God uses men. All through scripture, what you'll find is God is God, but God uses men to get his will accomplished. We find that all through scripture, he used different men to accomplish his will. And so we praise the Lord for his word, and that's what we're celebrating today in I Love My Bible. So let's stand together and let's read 2 Timothy 3. I know maybe you don't stand, but that's all right. We can stand because you're gonna be sitting for a little more and you need some exercise. All right, so 2 Timothy 3, well-known passage of scripture. We're gonna start in verse 14. It says here, but continue thou and the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Verse 15, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures. It's not just scriptures, it's holy. That means it's pure. It comes from God. Notice what the holy scriptures can do, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Jesus Christ or in Christ Jesus. Verse 16 is a very familiar passage. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this opportunity. I thank you for Grace Baptist Church and, Lord, their desire just to uplift the word of God. You always bless people and you bless churches that uplift your word. And I pray, Lord, as the scriptures tell us to do, I pray that we revere them and, Lord, appreciate them, but also learn to study them. so that they can make us wise unto salvation, and they can make us perfect, Lord, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Lord, as always, I ask for you to do that which I cannot do, that is, speak to hearts. We ask and claim your power in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Surveys show, and this was a number of years ago, that I was reading on this, and they showed that there was an alarming amount of teenagers that were biblically illiterate. Now these teenagers had grown up in Sunday school. Now it may not have been necessarily all the churches like your church, all right, but some of them were. They might call it, in surveys a lot of times they call it Christendom, all right, so in Christendom. So Christendom can include Methodists and Lutherans and some of those, I don't even know what they preach and teach. But they go to church and they would say, hey, we went to Sunday school. But what was interesting when they surveyed these young people, many of them could not name the books of the Bible. They could only quote a few scripture verses, little knowledge concerning the great doctrines of the faith. Listen to some of the questions. The questions were pretty simple. A third of the congregation Alright, so let's look at we got it split in half. We don't have it three So we're just gonna take like the front like three pews. So Scoring upon them right there. Look at those guys right there a third of the a third of the young people Did not know that Jesus spent his boyhood in Nazareth shame on you guys Unbelievable. All right, then So we picked on you, so it's this half. So now you guys can scorn upon these guys. Half of you guys, shame on you guys. Half of you could not, they had no idea of what Gethsemane was. 75%, I mean, that's almost all of you. 75% had no idea who Simon Peter was. Think about these simple questions, and these young people said they went to Sunday school. So what has happened? Because according to what we believe, the Bible, one man put it this way, and I think I have it on your handout, the Bible is the good book. It's the greatest book. It's God's book. It's different from all other books. It's the most unique book known to humankind. It's a divine library containing 66 books, 39 in the old, 27 in the new, primarily written in two languages, Hebrew and Greek. And this is what's unique about the Bible. It was written by over 40 authors over a span of 1500 years. This is what I would tell you. You couldn't get five authors over a span of five years to agree on almost anything. But 40 over 1,500 years and what you'll find, I know there's people that say there's contradictions, but really when you come down to it, there's not really contradictions. Maybe you may not understand something or maybe somebody else says, well, I think it's this. but there is really no misrepresentation of Christ in scripture all throughout it. And that's amazing. When you study the Bible, one of the ways, or when you're studying different topics in the Bible, one of the ways the Bible helps us to understand different things about itself is by types. So on your handout, I listed a couple of things, a couple of types that the Bible describes itself as. And so this just as a way of introduction, we're gonna look at some of these. The first is found in Jeremiah 23, 29. The Bible says this, is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. So actually there's two descriptions given to the word of God in that verse, a fire and a what? A hammer. Now guess what a hammer, a hammer is a tool, isn't it? A hammer is useful. Now, a hammer can drive something, but also, in this passage, it says it can break things down. That's why we tell people, use the word of God. Use the word of God. Use the word of God. You have a relative or you have a friend or you have a coworker and they're so against Christianity and against God. Guess what? By leaving the word of God and talking about the word of God and talking about the word of God, guess what the word of God can do? It can break down that hardened heart. That's how powerful the word of God is. So it's a crushing hammer. Psalm 119, 105 says, thy word is a lamp. onto my feet and a light onto my path. So what is the description there? It's a lamp, it's a light. Now what's interesting, if you go back to Middle Eastern culture, many times we look at light like this, but they say that when you were walking on a dark path, some people, they would make lamps that would sit on their feet. And so each step was lit. I didn't have streetlights. They would have just little lamps and they would light the steps. And that kind of reminds us of the Bible, because what does the Bible say? The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. So the Bible helps me to light my path. In fact, in Sunday school, we read of a verse in Psalm 119, 130, where the Bible says, the entrance of thy word giveth what? Light. So the Bible is light. And in Sunday school, that's why we reference the Middle Ages. Historians now, many liberal historians, don't like calling the, basically, the around 400 or 500 A.D. to 1500 A.D., they don't like calling that time period the Dark Ages. They're like, oh, it wasn't necessarily that dark. The reason I call it the Dark Ages is because the word of God was put out. It was squelched. And so you see that all across the world. There was a limiting of understanding and knowledge because the word of God gives light. Another one is a probing instrument. and a two-edged sword. Hebrews 4.12, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Listen to what it says, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You know, some people, all right, in fact, all right, young people sitting here, this is mom and dad, they look at you like, I know what you're thinking. Like, no, you don't. All right, no, actually, mom and dad sometimes do. It's weird, all right? But the Bible, guess what it does? It knows our thoughts and intents. It really does. That's why sometimes we don't like to be engaged with the word of God. You know, when we're wanting to do our own thing, I don't like opening up the Bible, because the Bible then pierces even to the thoughts and intents. It can divide that. It can help you know. That's why when somebody is growing in the Lord, guess what the best thing you can do? Be in this book. It'll help you. To even, you know, the big thing is know thyself. You know what the Word of God will help you to do? Know yourself. And the more you get in the Word of God, you know what you know about yourself? Yeah, you're a crud. All right, so am I. I'm not good. Basically, I have a bent towards doing wrong or I have a bent towards pleasing me. The Word of God reveals that. Then the last one, Ephesians 6, 17, is a sword and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is what? The word of God. This morning, I'm gonna look at three thoughts. So we have just three points. I think you can handle this, all right? So, and it all comes from our passage here in 2 Timothy 3.16. So notice what it says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. So in just those few words, we get three very important points about God's book, God's amazing book. First of all, God's word is preserved. Second one, God's word is profitable. And then thirdly, God's word is powerful. So all three of these we find in the text here, and we're gonna try to look at that this morning. So let's look first of all at God's word is preserved. So with the word preserved, we're gonna look at two words that are very important when it comes to scripture that are somewhat misunderstood. So there's inspiration, you find that here, and then preservation. So God's word is preserved. So what do we mean by inspiration? So I'm gonna give you a couple of false ideas. All right, and then we're gonna tell you basically what your church believes and you're gonna understand it, which is amazing. Okay, so here we go. God's word is inspired. So what do we mean by inspired? We don't mean that it's humanly inspired. So what do we mean by when someone says, well, human inspiration? So did you know that we even use this sometimes? We sang songs this morning. I can't remember all the authors, but let me just throw out a couple authors that most people know when it comes to church and hymn books. Fanny Crosby. You know that Fanny Crosby, I can't remember how many, but I think it's thousands of hymns that she wrote. Thousands. Now guess what? That takes a little inspiration. Because if I wrote a hymn, you wouldn't want to hear it. You'd be like, you're not inspired at all. All right? You know what? We don't like that. All right, so there was Charles Wesley. He wrote a bunch of songs. Isaac Watts, Philip Bliss. There's a bunch of guys. Even recently, there was a man that just passed away in the last couple years named Ron Hamilton. A lot of people knew his song. In fact, I think they just sang a song by Ron Hamilton. All right, so, and guess what? That seemed to flow. That seemed to make sense. So that's human inspiration. In fact, you find that in poetry. Actually, I've been able to write one poem. There's been no other inspiration, all right? But, and I actually, and on the back of your handout, I think I have a poem, The Anvil of God's Word. I love that poem, but I didn't write it. Okay, that's human inspiration. But the Bible, when we're saying that the Bible is inspired, we're not saying that it's like human inspiration. You're sitting there, and all of a sudden, you got this thought. The authors just got this thought, and they just started writing. Because Fannie Crosby, I love their songs, Philip Bliss, and Isaac Watts, and so many others, Ron Hamilton, all these songs that have been written. Byron Fox, he writes some. All these guys that write songs, but yet, guess what? Their writings are not perfect. They're not holy. They can be with error. When it comes to scripture, I don't believe that. So we don't believe in human, that the Bible is humanly inspired. Another one is partial inspiration. So listen to what the scholars say about partial inspiration. They say parts of the Bible are inspired, primarily those related to faith and practice. Did you hear that? Primarily. The Bible merely contains the word of God. Only certain portions of scripture are inspired, such as prophetic passages and certain portions of the Bible more or less inspired than others. And you'd say, well, wait a minute, so who knows that? Who gets to decide what parts are inspired and what are not? That almost sounds like what we were talking about in Sunday school, a little bit of like middle ages, dark ages. Only the select few get to decide. So does the Bible address this? Yes, it does. So if you have your Bible, turn to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1 blows this one kind of out of the water. How does it say that? Well, it says this. We'll start in verse 15. Moreover, 2 Peter 1, so this is written by, hello, Peter. You guys are brilliant, except some of you weren't this morning, all right? So this is written by Peter. Blame it on time change. Moreover, I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. Look at verse 16. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables. What are fables? Just made up stories, right? when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty, for he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. So what is Peter talking about there? Anybody know? That's the transfiguration. Remember that inner three, Peter, James, and John went up, and what Peter is recounting, he said, I was an eyewitness of Christ, and I saw that he was God. Listen to the next verse. He says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whoa. So Peter is saying, and I think if Peter walked in, I would trust what he says. but Peter says the Bible is more sure than an eyewitness account. That sounds like you can bank on it, right? Then notice what it says later on in verse 20, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any, what's that word? Private interpretation. That blows the idea of partial inspiration up. There's no private interpretation. This is what happens. God, through the Holy Spirit, and that's what you find, the Holy Spirit was involved in the transcription. And you'd say, how did that work? I can't explain it all. But that's what the Bible says. God and the Holy Spirit were the authors, and they, through 40 authors, gave us every word that should be in the Bible. And it's there. There's not one word that's not there, and there's not one that's added. It's all there, so we have it all. Thus, in 2 Timothy 3.16, how much scripture? Some scripture is given by, it's all. And all, I know some people have a problem with this. All actually means all. It really does. It's not confusing to me. So every word that God wants is inspired. It's not humanly, it's not partially, so usually in a constitution, this is what the constitution says. It says that we believe that the holy scriptures are plenary, verbally inspired. You're like, I have no idea what that means. And so some people even use the words to describe it. They're like, so what does that mean? You're like, well, it means plenary. They're like, what does that mean? Well, verbally, plenary. And they just keep saying the same words. So what does plenary verbally mean? Plenary means all. All. Verbally means the words. So what we're saying is basically what 2 Timothy 3.16 says. We believe that all scripture is inspired. So you have two things, and later in April, you're basically having a conference that is gonna break these down. So you're gonna have one whole sermon on inspiration. This is where people mess up. The next word is, remember, there's two words with the preservation. You have inspiration, and secondly, you have preservation. People mess up with preservation. Because what they say, and this is where, and I've been in this business a decent amount. And what happens is people say, well, the Bible in the originals. But guess what? I don't read Hebrew and Greek. I have a lot of education, but language is not my thing. I love doctrine. I love studying the Bible. I love studying doctrine. I love studying history and different aspects. But language is not my thing. But I don't have to know another language to know the Bible. Because somebody else knows, all right, and I have no problem. You'll see in a few minutes, I'll use the term etymology. Etymology is where you study the background of words. We should study. In fact, the Bible commands us to study, to show yourself approved. But it's not saying that I have to know some other language. It brings it into mysticism again. Because the Bible is not only inspired, it's preserved. My favorite verse, and I think I listed a couple of verses there for you. Matthew 4.4 is one of them. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. But one of my favorite verses on preservation is Psalm 12, six and seven. Let me read that verse to you. as far as preservation. It says, the words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. So let me pause there. So when I was reading that, I had to go and study it because it says the word of the Lord are pure words. I understand that. But then he says it's purified in a furnace of earth. I had no clue. What that was, and there's no problem not knowing something, then dig and find out. So actually in scripture, you have an illustration of a furnace of earth. Three Hebrew children. Remember that? So what was that furnace of earth? So in Middle Eastern culture during that time, the hottest furnace was guess what? A furnace of earth. So remember, the king said, I am gonna throw them in the hottest fire. Guess what it was? It was a furnace of earth. So God, in talking to us said, guess what I did to my words to keep them pure? I found the hottest place. And I didn't just throw them in once, I purified it, how many times? Seven. So you can get bent out of shape with numerology and scripture. And there are some people that you just confuse me. I have no idea, because they're like, now, if you take the three, and the seven, and the six, and you're like, no, no, I'm lost already. But in the Bible, there are certain things numerology does help us. For instance, the number seven. So what happened on the seventh day? God rested, everything as far as earth was finished, it was good. So the idea of seven is that it's complete. So guess what God said? I put it in this fire and purified it seven times until it was complete. That's awesome. But notice he didn't just stop there. Look at verse seven then. So he purifies it, and then God says, as far as preservation, who's gonna keep them? Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt, here's our word, preserve them, for how long? From this generation for a few days. Nope, forever. Guess whose job? You know, all of us that are in the Bible business, we're like, oh, I mean, are we gonna have it? I don't know, I mean, we gotta keep. Now God uses man, that's what we were studying in Sunday school. But God sometimes uses men that you wouldn't think. In fact, we're gonna talk about it tonight. King James, sorry, he wasn't a good dude. I don't like him that much. In fact, he was, I mean, he studied, whatever, and there's all kinds of weird things that you'll read. There's debate on different aspects of his character, moral character. But actually, I don't really care about that. Because what I know is that, actually, King James never translated one word. He really didn't. But God used a king who had the authority and power to keep his word because God says, you know what? Actually in the scriptures, God can use a donkey. Remember a donkey talking one time? Like, hey dude, you're hitting me. God can use whatever he desires because God says, this is my book, I got it. Well, this is what I can tell you. When somebody here, myself, I come to you and I'm like, hey, tonight, I will give you $100. You could say, well, you may do it, you may not, or whatever. I may or may not. Have people promised you something and backed out? Yeah, but not God. God, when he says something, you can bank on it. So number one in our text, let's go back to 2 Timothy 3.16. It says, all scripture is given by what? Inspiration. That's that word, inspiration and preservation. So first of all, God's word is a preserved book. It's guaranteed. and it's by God. Secondly, God's word is a, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is what? Profitable. So God's word is not only preserved, but it's profitable. Now we're not gonna deal for sake of time with every word here, but notice what it says. It's profitable and it gives us four things for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness. We're gonna look at two of them. First one, it says it's profitable for doctrine. And that word, somebody said it. What is it? It's teaching. Doctrine is teaching. So guess what? The Bible, you know why the devil doesn't want you to have the Bible? And he fights against people having the Bible? Because the Bible is where I am taught Thus, like personally, I want to have God's words, because it teaches me things. And also, I want to be a part of a church that believes in God's book. You know, there's a movement, and it's not just in the last 10 years, and it's not just in the last 20 years. It's been centuries that basically there are some churches that man's opinion is elevated. Again, we talked about it, we call that in Roman Catholicism. So what do they say? The Pope can actually speak, do you know what the term is? Ex cathedra. Do you know what that means? He gets special revelation. I'm like, how did you get that? Like, did you see it? I mean, I can go outside and the clouds kind of align and I'm like, look it, it says, go to such and such steakhouse. Like, see that? That's lunch today. All right, that's, it's just telling me. I'm like, I didn't see that. Like, it's there. So how do you X Cathedral? So this is the problem though We believe that the Bible is God's Word and it's finished. It's complete. Nothing is added. Nothing is subtracted So the problem is that if I say the Bible is kind of like a final authority But the Pope and early church fathers and other people they have say But the Pope can change Kenny and he does and So if this doesn't change, and we know it's not, but he can, actually then the Bible is belittled and their authority is higher because they can change, can't they? That's what, no, no, no. See, the Bible teaches me. It's important that I'm part of a church that the Bible is lifted up. In fact, that was in Acts, I believe it's Acts 17. The Berean Christians, some churches are called, have you ever heard of a Berean Baptist Church? Now some, it's not a movement or whatever, but the reason they picked that name is because the Bible says that the Bereans were noble. Why? Because they searched the scriptures daily. See, that is a mark of a good church and a good Christian. Now notice another word here in the text. So the Bible teaches, and then we're not gonna look at reproof, we're gonna look at that word correction. So the Bible not only teaches, that's doctrine, it's for reproof, but then correction. You'd say, what does correction mean? Remember etymology you study behind the word? It literally means to set up straight. They say, so when you study a word, sometimes they'll go and they'll look at different cultures. They'll go and look at different communities and maybe languages. They say that some areas of that correction, there was a medical aspect behind it. And so doctors would say to somebody, I've got to set up straight something. And so this is what it meant. So you would go out, you're playing, and you broke a bone, a finger. Maybe you've broken something in your arm, some bone in your arm. So you go to the doctor, and the doctor says, I've got to correct. That bone, what is he doing? He's setting it back up straight. You know what the Bible is saying? Sometimes you and I get out of sorts, don't we? And I come to the Word of God. For instance, our society is kind of out of sorts. Now, praise the Lord. There's some that are trying to correct it. but without the word of God, it's not gonna be all corrected. All right, for instance, I don't care really what the Supreme Court says or dictates, but actually the Bible has told me what marriage is. It actually does. You can go to the book of Genesis and God established one man, one woman, and that's marriage. He actually performed the first wedding. He did, God did. God said, this is what marriage, and Christ, in the gospels, went back and even said, don't you remember what God did at the beginning? One man, one woman, and they get married. You see, I don't have to have society tell me, but sometimes society gets out of sorts, and I come back to the Word of God, and guess what the Word of God does? It sets me up straight. That can happen with a bunch of things. There can be sins that in society seem okay. You can look at society down through the hundreds of years. For instance, right now, right now, it's legal, kinda, sorta, maybe not, all right, but you can have an abortion. But so what does the Bible say? I always come back to the Bible. It's not society's job to tell us what sin is and what is not sin. Actually, the word of God corrects society. See, the Bible is important. It's profitable. Why is it profitable? Because it's profitable for doctrine, for teaching, and it's profitable for correction. So we said there's three things. You'd say, wait a minute, I do not see the third word. All scripture is given by inspiration. That's preservation, inspiration, preservation, and it's profitable. All right? But then the third one is powerful. You'd say, wait a minute, where is power in this? Well, it's found in all scripture is given by inspiration. Inspiration so, you know what the word inspiration really means God breathed God breathed so think about this This is why there's power. So what happened when God first breathed? You remember it The world is created. He spoke. So just so you know, you can't speak without breathing out. That's kind of how words are developed. We could bring a teenager up here and we could say, hold your breath for five minutes, which would kind of be fun to see that. But we could say, hold your breath for five minutes and try to speak. You can't. See, when you speak, it actually, you are basically You're breathing out, you breathe out words. But not just that, God spoke out words and the world was created, but also God breathed. When did God first breathe? Into the nostrils, into man. And what happened, so man, so all the other creation was different. He's speaking the world's he's speaking trees and speaking the fish but then man it says he formed man out of the dust of the ground and he Breathed into him the breath of life and what happened to man? He became a living soul. That's why we call this the living words God breathed into it. It's powerful. And in fact, the Bible elsewhere, and we read the verse already, testifies to it. Hebrews 4.12, the word of God is quick. All right, or that word quick means alive. It's alive and it's powerful. That word powerful, all right, you would know this. So remember etymology? That word powerful is energeos. You know what that, what does that sound like? Yeah, the Energizer bunny. Bing, bing, it doesn't stop. All right, that's like your four-year-old, five-year-old, all right? They don't stop, all right? Energios. The Bible is saying this about itself. It is alive. It doesn't stop. It's powerful. The Bible, in fact, tells us how powerful it is. It's powerful enough to cleanse from sin. Psalm 119, remember we are talking about Psalm 119 in the Sunday school hour. Psalm 119, nine, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against God. Guess what the Bible can do, it's powerful enough to cleanse from sin this morning. If you don't know Jesus as your Savior, church doesn't get you to heaven. that the water back here doesn't get you to heaven. And thank the Lord, someone's gonna get baptized today. But we don't believe that the baptismal waters get you saved. It is a picture of salvation because the water represents, in some sense, the earth, and also it's picturing what happened to Christ. He went into the tomb. But praise the Lord, he came out alive. And that can happen to us when we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. See, the Word of God, that's why the Word of God has to go forth with boldness and power. And that's why the devil squelches the Word of God. Because guess what it can do? It's powerful enough to cleanse from sin. It also, is powerful enough to impart strength. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8, you know that from the word of God, I get daily strength. In the Old Testament, we have a picture of that and Jesus referenced this in John chapter six. Remember Jesus in John chapter six, they were hungry and a little boy had five loaves and two fishes and Jesus came and broke it and everybody was fed and they were full. And after that, he said, I am the bread of life. He said, wait a minute, what is that? And he referenced this. He said, remember back in the wilderness? And guess what God provided every day for them, except for on the Sabbath? He provided for them daily manna. It was, actually, the Bible describes it was angels' food. We still don't know all that it is. I think in heaven we'll figure that out. But here was this angel food and daily they were supposed to go and collect it. And it wouldn't last for another day. It's a picture of the bread of life. It's Jesus. It's the word of God. And daily I need to be in this book because it gives me strength. It gives me comfort. The word of God illuminates. It's powerful enough to show you what you need to do every day. No, no, there's a lot of people with a lot of ideas for your life. Like, hey, you need to do this, and you need to do that. I'm like, all right. But you know what? I can go to God, and God can direct my path through his word. He really can. See, that's the power of this book. We said that there's three things. Remember the three things? We said that God's word is a preserved book. We said God's word is a profitable book. But God's word also is powerful. So then my challenge to you, one, have you gone to the word of God to find salvation? And if not, let the word of God lead you to Christ today. But then, if you're saved, so how much do you cherish the Word of God? We're spending all day looking at the Word of God. In Sunday school, we started seeing that, man, the world was pretty dark at some periods of history, but God brought people like John Wycliffe and William Tyndale, and they gave, William Tyndale gave his life. John Hus gave his life so that we could have a Bible. It's bathed. Our Bible is bathed, literally, in blood. And we have it. And sometimes I'm like, eh, I mean, what's the big deal? I'm glad that I, when I was a young person, and every once in a while you'll catch me, even sometimes I have a hard time putting my iPad on top of my Bible. You know why? Man, there would be like, oh, that's the Bible. Don't put anything on it. I understand my iPad actually has the Bible on it, so technically the Bible is still on top. But I'm glad that people put this in my heart, that that thing is sacred. It's a sacred book. It's not like any other book. You know, about 20, 30 years ago, you had a movement in America called the self-help or self-improvement. And all kinds of books came out. You might remember some of the names, Stephen Covey, or Covey, they say. And he had the seven habits of highly effective people on it. It took off so much that pretty soon, even after his death, they were writing still seven habits. They were like the seven habits of highly effective nerds, seven habits of highly effective kids, and seven habits of highly effective families. I mean, it just kept going and going and going. There was all these highly effective Then you had Dr. Phil, life strategies, self-matters. John Gray, men are from Mars, women are from Venus. I have no idea what that means, but it took off. Then Richard Carlson, and there's a whole series of things. Don't sweat the small stuff. There's a whole series of books on him. And in fact, if you look it up, I in fact thought of not starting a seminary, but just going into self-improvement and self-help speaking, because they say that speakers for self-help get an average of $5,000 to $10,000 per speech. I'm only charging about half of that today. All right? But think about that. I mean, 10,000, there's some, they say, I was talking with my son-in-law, and he was able to go down and hear John Maxwell. John Maxwell, they say, gets about $150,000 a speech. I was like, I'm quitting. All right, I'm going right there. All right, so why? So I can feel better. But think about this. This whole world, this whole energy, Industry, all right, this whole thing is built so that people can get motivated and move ahead. And I have an inspired word of God from heaven. And it's not enough. Oh, it's enough. So I say, get to this book, study it, learn it, get in it, let it guide you. It is way better than any self-help book or self-help development system that you'll ever spend money on. Because this book is preserved, it's profitable, and it's powerful. Heads bowed, eyes closed. Just a moment, we'll have a time of invitation. I would ask you here this morning, first of all, do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior? Don't wanna embarrass you, but I'd like to pray for you if you'd say, you know, I don't know Jesus Christ as my savior. I don't know that I've ever had a time that I saw from the word of God that I'm a sinner. and I need to turn to Christ, and it's not church membership, it's not me doing so much, it's not getting baptized, all those things, you know what, it's good to be good, it's good to be in church, it's good to get baptized, but that doesn't get you saved, and you say, how do you know that, the word of God, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, guess what the Bible says, thou shalt be saved. This morning, do you know Jesus Christ? Have you called on him yourself? If you'd say, I don't know Jesus Christ as my savior, would you pray for me this morning? I won't embarrass you, but I'd like to pray for you. Is there anybody like that? You just slip up your hand and say, I don't know Jesus Christ as my savior, would you pray for me? Anybody like that this morning? We'd just like to pray for you. What about as a Christian here this morning? God work on your heart about the word of God. Do you truly love your Bible? If so, what did Jesus say? If you love me, keep my commandments. If you love the Bible, you'll do what it says. And maybe God's challenged you this morning in some area, and you don't appreciate that good old book that God has given you. May God help us to appreciate and love the Bible more through the preaching today.