so He leadeth me, O blessed thought, O words with heavenly comfort fraught, What e'er I do, where'er I be, Still tis God's hand that leadeth me, He leadeth me, he leadeth me. By his own hand he leadeth me, his faithful follower I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me. Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom By water still or troubled sea Still tis his hand that leadeth me And when my task on earth is done, When by thy grace the victories won, In death's cold wave I will not flee, Since God through Jordan leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me By His own hand He leadeth me His faithful follower I would be For by His hand He leadeth me ♪ For by his hand he leadeth me ♪ So amen, praise God, he leads us, doesn't he? All right, let's take out our Bibles and we're gonna do a textual message today, all right? So all our main points are gonna come from a certain passage of scripture. And if you want, you can look those up with me as we go along. And I'll be giving you those references as we get there. We'll dismiss the kids, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, to go with Mrs. Shore to the creche. And if you want to go ahead and open your Bibles, you can open up to that passage in Malachi. That's probably one we're going to spend a bit of time pretty soon there. So Malachi chapter 3, the last page in the Old Testament. Otherwise, we're going to touch on some scripture kind of as we go along. Those of you that went to college can remember those days. You get to the university or to the college, and it's a little bit overwhelming. You're in a different location, possibly. In my case, we moved about, I don't know, 1,500 miles to go to Bible college from up in Wisconsin, central US, far north, down to South Carolina in the southern United States. And you get down there, it's a different climate, different people, but it's a big campus. Bob Jones had probably close to 5,000 students when I was a student there. A lot of them dorm students, so several thousand students living on the campus. And it's kind of its own little world. And you're getting introduced to it. And one of the ways that they help you get introduced to it is they have this class called Freshman Orientation. And every week, you go to Freshman Orientation. They teach you different things. I remember this man, Dr. Salters. Dr. Salters was a Nazi, and he got saved, and God brought him to Bob Jones after the war, and he was on staff there. And boy, he was somebody that put the fear of God in you. He came into our class, and he got, I don't know, 600, 700 freshmen there, and I remember him going, You stupid freshman. And it was good. We needed that little humbling experience as he taught us about timelines and setting, making sure we're on time and budgeting our time and that. Probably to help us with our stupidity, they gave us a tour of the library. And so take us there, show us the reference areas, show us how to look up a resource and how to find what we need to find a very large library that they had there at Bob Jones. What we're going to look at today has to do with that. It's a library. And we're going to tour it today. And it doesn't have a ton of volumes, but interestingly, it has probably a lot more volumes than you'd think of because the library that we're going to look at today is God's library. And if I asked you, what is God's library, you might say, well, you know, the 66 books of the Bible, right? But you know, actually, God's library has several other volumes. And we're going to look at that today. And it's not the Apocrypha. It's what we already actually read. You may not have noticed it in our text of what we read, that there was a book. that the Word of God speaks about. And so we're going to look at God's library and the books that God has given. And if we could pick up these books today, and we'll talk about it, one of them we can, but if we could pick up these books today, they would each reveal to us different truths. But I would say they would reveal to us vital truths. We know the Word of God does that. We're going to deal with that book first. but they each reveal to us vital truths. And so as we go along, I want you to be thinking about today, how does that book affect me? How does that book affect my life? And so let's pray and let's ask God to bless as we look at these books in God's library. Father, thank you for the opportunity to open the word of God today. Father, we praise you that you do lead us. It's been a blessing to know that if we're saved and if we're obedient and we're following, that God, you're guiding us through the tough times, you're guiding us through the easy times, that you might take us up on a mountaintop for the refreshment, but then God, by your grace, you take us through the valley to meet our needs in the valley as well. And so I pray today, Lord, that as a church, we know that. I pray, God, that you'd comfort and encourage those that are faithful to you and obeying you and finding it difficult. But Father, as we come to this topic this morning, as we get to look at your library, I pray, Spirit of God, you speak to our hearts. And Father, I pray that it be practical. I pray it be helpful. I pray that you guide me as I speak. And Lord, that you speak to us through this time. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. All right, the first book that we're gonna look at, as I mentioned, is the Book of the Law, or the Word of God, God's revelation to us. And this book reveals to me that I've been shown God's requirements for my life. As I hold this book today in my hand, I know that I've got God's rules given to me. When I was a student at Bob Jones, they had a handbook that they'd also give you. And when I became a grad student, I was a GA, a graduate assistant. And so I was kind of on staff. I was working 30 hours a week for the university. They would provide my board and room and board. for my classes and everything. I just had to buy my books. And they gave me a little bit of money every couple weeks as well. But as a staff person, they had kind of two different dining halls. They had this huge dining hall, and that was where all the undergraduates ate. And then they had kind of a staff side. Well, I found out right away as I became a graduate assistant, I had to eat on the staff side. Well, the problem was that my fiancee, Katie, she ate on the other side of that place. And that was the rule. I mean, that was the rule. Never the twain shall meet. And I was praying about that rule, praying about that rule, praying about that rule. And I went in and I said to Dr. Smith, and Dr. Smith was kind of like Dr. Salters, just a very serious man, a good man. I shouldn't probably say this because it's recorded, but hopefully no one will hear it that knows him. But I said, I met his brother-in-law once. And he said, you know my brother-in-law, he works there at Bob Jones. I said, I know who that is. He said, he never smiles, does he? I said, no. And he said, people ask me if he's saved. That's what he said. So anyway, I'm going to go in. I'm going to talk to this man. I'm going to ask him, can I eat with my fiance? So I go in. And I prayed a lot about it. I came in. And I said, Dr. Smith. I'd just like to ask if I could eat with my fiance. And you know what he said? He said, well, do you know the rule? I said, I do. He said, well, that's the rule. Listen, guess what? Next year, they changed it. They did. And I feel like I had a part in that. They changed it the next year. But just to give you the rest of the story, I said to Lord, well, Lord, I guess if we can't eat there, we'll have to eat at the snack shop. And I know I figured it out, and we didn't have much money, but I think I spent like $700 that year in the snack shop, because that's the time we had to spend together. But anyway. I knew the rule. You know, I can't say to God today, or someday, as I stand before Him, I can't say to Him, God, I don't know the rules. See, this is not just a book that I hold here in my hand this morning. This is what the Bible says in Nehemiah 8.18, this is the book of the law of God. Can I say it again so make sure we get it? This is the book of the law of God. This is God's requirements for man's kind. It's what the Bible says in 1911. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. So I don't trespass against you, God. I get this book and I put it in my heart so I can understand it. But guess what? This book today is in my hand here on earth. I can read it. It's in your hand if you're holding it this morning. But guess where this book also is? It's also in heaven. The Bible tells us that. It tells us in Psalm 119 verse 89, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. You know, a book. A book is a valuable resource, isn't it? I mean, look at what I have here today in the Bible, but a book is a valuable resource. I've seen, traveling up in the highlands, I've seen the library bus come along. I've seen it in Midlothian as well. Have you seen it? It says, you know, borrowing library and it drives around and people can come up to it and just borrow books. You know, books used to hold a greater value than they do today. Today, we've got internet. Today, we've got, you know, quick media resources. But back in the day, mankind didn't have that, did they? And so they would take a book and a book would be a treasure that would be passed down to another generation, passed down to another generation. And none, no book more important than this book. You know, I was looking online and the christianresearch.org says about 50 Bibles sell every minute. Isn't that incredible? that the Bible Society's attempt to calculate the number printed between 1816 and 1975 produced a figure of 2,458,000 or 458 million. Another survey for the years up to 1992 put it closer to 6 billion. Well, you know, on our planet, there's only 7 billion people, but 6 billion Bibles have been printed. Wikipedia said about this book, it's the most translated book. There's 2,932 languages that have at least one copy of the Bible. The New Testament has been put into 1,333 other languages, I would assume, since it said it separately. The Guinness Book of World Record said, although it's impossible to obtain exact figures, there's little doubt that the Bible is the world's best selling and most widely distributed book. So let me ask you today, how significant is this book to you today? This is a book right from God's library. It's a book that is inspired by God. 2 Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. That word inspiration, it doesn't mean inspiration like, oh, I'm so inspired by that. That inspires me. It doesn't mean that. This word inspiration in scripture, it means God breathed. It means that God put it out with His breath, by the inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2 Peter 1 21 tells us that the prophecy, the word of God came not in the old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So holy, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. That means today that when I read the book of Malachi or Joel or Daniel or Isaiah or other scripture, that it wasn't just that those men wrote down those things. is that God took those men and through them wrote down those things. And you might think, well, how can that be? Because obviously there's differences between writers. But I can illustrate it like this. If I had a Parker pen today and I had a broken pencil, I could take either one of those things today and I could write something and you could look at that and say, Pastor Ben wrote it, but you would see distinct differences between the Parker pen and the pencil. because they write distinctly different. And we pick up the word of God, we can read Paul and how Paul writes, and they call it Pauline writing, right? He has a very distinct way that he writes. The sweet psalmist of Israel, David, has a very distinct way that he writes, and yet these men, under inspiration of God, God took them and God wrote his word to us. So I can hold up this book today and say I have here before us the very word of God. God's book is not only written by Him, but God's book is preserved by Him. Psalm 12, verse 6 and 7 says, The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. That scripture says this, that God is the guardian of His word, that God is the one protecting His word, and that for every generation, forever, that God is the one guarding His word. I have unbelievers say to me, the Bible, it can't be the word of God, because it's changed. It's been corrupted over the years. I mean, they attack inspiration and they attack preservation, but guess what? God says it's both His word that He wrote, and He says He's the one that's kept it. We talked about the stars last week or two weeks ago. Those stars that are incredibly huge, God put them there and he made the stars also. You know, it's not too hard today for God to protect his word. Matthew 5.18 says, Verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Guess what? The jot and the tittle are the smallest diacritical markings of the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrew Old Testament. And so it's kind of like an apostrophe. You look at it, apostrophe, and you think, that's not really a big marking, big deal, but God says, I'm gonna so protect my word that even that little marking is gonna be kept by me. That's how much he's protected it. You remember that story in Jeremiah, where Jeremiah has just written his book to give to the king, all right? And it goes to the king, Jeremiah chapter 36, beginning at verse 21, The king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll, the roll is the scroll that Jeremiah had written. He took it out of Elishama, the scribe's chamber, and Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with a penknife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth." That was God's Word. Jeremiah is a prophet. Jeremiah is writing that book that we have in our Bible, the book of Jeremiah. He's giving it to the king to be God's instruction to them. And he takes it, he cuts it with a knife, he burns it. By the way, has mankind ever tried to burn God's Word? Oh, they have. Mankind has tried many times to destroy the Bible. Well, what happens in our story? It says, Towards the end of that passage, verse 27, "'Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. "'After that, the king had burned the roll, "'and the words which Barak wrote "'at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, "'Take thee again another roll, another scroll, "'and write in it all the former words "'that were in the first roll, "'which Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, hath burned.'" What does God do? Mankind destroys his word, and God just says, Jeremiah, write it again. It doesn't matter how much mankind says, I hate that book, and I'm going to take that book, and I'm going to shred that book. Guess what? Today, the government, try as they might, they can't take this book and change it because this is God's book. And God has preserved it. He's kept it. You know, I was just in Israel in January and we stood in Qumran where the shepherd, the Bedouin shepherd came across that cave and they found all that, those jars, those clay pots filled with scrolls, one of which was the Isaiah scroll. And guess what? The Isaiah scroll is the same as what we've got translated into our English Bible. It's the same. It hasn't changed. And so we have today the word of God, and praise God, his book is preserved by him. Now, imagine this. You could go to heaven tonight, and you could say to God, God, I'd just like a book from heaven tonight, and can I check out a book from heaven? If God gave you a book from heaven, would you read it? See, we've heard it said before, if God wrote you a love letter, would you read it? How we devalue what God's given to us. Isn't that a shame? You've got this at your house. Did you read it this week? Did you spend time in this book? Did you let God speak to you? Did you read his law and know what he expects about your life? I mean, what an important book God has given to us. This is the only book today of the five that we're gonna look at. We're gonna see five books, right? But this is the only one you get. These other books, we don't get to see. We're going to see what's in them. We're going to see what they're about, but they're not books that you can actually hold in your hand today. And to think that one of these five, we can actually hold it. Praise God that he's given to us his book. All right. So that's book number one, which is the book that is his law. Okay. The book of his law. The second book is the book of blueprints. All right. The book of blueprints. It's God's book of human architecture. It's God's book that has in it everything there is about you as an individual. It reveals to us today that God designed us. It's a book the Bible speaks about in the book of Psalms. Psalm 139, 14 through 16 speaks about this book. It says, I will praise thee, David said. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. By the way, evolution's not true. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance. Okay, let me put in another word that's a more familiar word to us. Thine eyes did see me as a fetus. Thine eyes did see me after I was conceived in the womb, that God saw me. Now listen to what the word of God says about that. When I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect. And in thy book, there it is. Whose book? I just want to make sure you know I'm not making this up today. There are these other books. In thy book, all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." What that says is this book that God has is a book of blueprints for my life. It said in that book, male. It said in that book, brown eyes. It said in that book, five foot eight and a half. It said in that book that I would be right-handed. It said in that book that I was coming to Mark and Ann Schwartz's home. I saw a picture last night online. My mom put it on Facebook. It's an old picture of me, my brother, my sister, and I, and singing with my mom. My dad's at the piano, playing the piano, and doing some family music at a church. You know, God designed that. God put that into me as he designed me. And so David is amazed. He's thinking about what we know now. By the way, what do we know now about what is information that's in us? What do we call it? DNA. All the information for my eye color, all my information for my hair color, all my information for my sex, all the information for everything about me, where did it come from? God. You know, that ought to encourage you today that you are who God wants you to be. We hear a lot about self-esteem, you know. Think positive, positive thoughts about yourself. Listen, we don't need self-esteem, we just need to go to the book and realize God made us this way. We just need to realize, I am exactly who God intended me to be, because God, you made me. You know, God's original creation, if you go back and read Genesis one through three, it says, and God spoke, and God spoke, and God spoke. But when God formed man, what does it say? He took up the dust of the ground, and he formed man, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. What's it say when he formed Eve? He took a rib out of man, so that there was, I mean, that unity between a man and his wife, that God took that rib out of Adam and made Eve from a rib. You say, I don't believe it. Well, you explained to me then how God created man out of dirt, and then we'll agree together that if he can do that, he can take a rib and make woman. Think about that, that's amazing. But how personal that is, isn't it? Isn't it incredible how God has done that? We can look at that and say, God, I wish I was Adam and Eve. Then I know that you made me this way. I just kind of happened in the womb. No. What David is saying is in the same specific way that God made Adam and Eve, that God made you, God made you, God made you, God made you. God made us the way that we are. And you might think, well, what about defects then? What about... infirmities of the flesh and, you know, problems that develop and things like that. What about those things in somebody's life? Well, what did Paul say? The Apostle Paul had an infirmity of the flesh. Some people think it was his eyesight because he saw the Lord, that glorious experience he had in his salvation, that it was something to do with that. Remember, the Corinthians criticized his speaking. Maybe it was a speech impediment. Maybe he couldn't speak that well. But Paul, three times, he said to God, God, please, I'm praying that you'll take this away. This is what God said to him. He said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses. For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong. What did God say? God said to Paul, Paul, my strength is magnified in your weakness. See, we think of weakness this way. I'm weak, so I can't. Paul said, I view my weakness as I'm weak, so God must. God has to do it. I can't do it. It's got to be God. And so I'm more dependent upon my Creator because of my weakness. You know, has God ever used somebody with handicaps? Blindness. Who do you think of? Francis Crosby, the great hymn writer. The woman that was blind from just a year or two old because of a doctor's error, putting some salve in her eyes that caused the blindness that she had the rest of her life. At age eight, Crosby wrote her first poem, which described her condition. She later remarked, it seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life. And I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow, I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I'd been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me. She also once said, when I get to heaven, the first face that she'll ever gladden my sight will be that of my savior. According to her biographer, Annie Willis, she said, had it not been for her affliction, she might not have so good an education or have so great an influence and certainly not so fine a memory. May God's grace was magnified in this lady's life. And you could say, oh, what a shame, what a pity that she had this infirmity, but she said, praise God for it, because it is what has made me what God has desired me to be. Remember what the disciples said, they saw the blind man, and they said, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And the Lord said, neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. You know what we need to stop doing? We need to stop looking at things we can't do and see them as what the world calls a disability. And look at them as something that is made for us to be a dependability upon God. Something that makes us rely more upon Him. Something that makes Him have to work in our lives to make us what we need to be for Him. The songwriter, Ron Hamilton, that we all enjoy. We sing a lot of his hymns here in church. When he was in college, he had a speck develop in his eye. The doctor looked at it and said, I think it's cancer. If it is, when we go into surgery, I'm going to have to take your eye. So he woke up from surgery. And guess what? It was cancer. And they had to take his eye. It was through that cancer that God opened up a ministry to him, and the kids know him as Patch the Pirate, because he has a children's ministry that makes children's stories and sing-alongs with this character that's Patch the Pirate, because the kids, when he came to church after his surgery, they started calling him Patch the Pirate. He's written a lot of music. But he's written one song soon after the surgery, and it was entitled God Makes No Mistakes. He says, I know God makes no mistakes. He leads in every path I take along the way that's leading me to home. Though at times my heart would break, there's a purpose in every change he makes so that others would see my life and know that God makes no mistakes. Can you honestly look in the mirror and see who God created? Looking back at you and say, you know, God didn't make a mistake. I thank God for who he's given me to be, that I'm exactly who he intended me to be, and that God, you can use me as you intend me to be used. You think about how different we are, how diverse we are. Evolution says, you know, random chance produced all these sensational and incredible diverse individual people. There's nobody like you. But we look at that book that God has in heaven. What is it? It's a book of blueprints. And so we say, you know, God made me exactly as he desired me to be. The book of blueprints, the book of the law. The third book this morning is the book of remembrance. This is a book where God keeps a record of everything that we do for God. King Ahasuerus, remember that King Esther is a story, if you read the Bible, the story about Esther. The king that she ends up becoming the wife to is King Ahasuerus. King Ahasuerus had a book like this. And so there was a night in Esther chapter 6 where King Ahasuerus, he couldn't sleep. And so he called for this book to be brought before him. And so it says, he commanded to bring the book of records of the Chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written that Mordecai, okay, this is Esther's uncle. Remember him in the story? He's the one that found out that they needed a queen. He's the one that encouraged Esther to go there. And a lot of the story revolves around him as a character in it. But it was found written in that Chronicles that Mordecai, Esther's uncle, had told of Bithynna and Tirish, two of the king's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hands on the king Ahasuerus. And so he had been out there one day at the king's gate, and he heard these men talking, and maybe they didn't think he spoke their language. Maybe they thought he didn't understand them, but they're talking somewhat openly about the fact that they're gonna take the king. Well, Mordecai informs the palace about that, and they took those men and found them guilty. And so the king reads about this and said, you know, what honor and dignity have been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the king's servants that ministered to him, there's nothing done for him. And the king said, Who's in the court? Okay, somebody come in. Now Haman was coming to the outward court of the king's house to speak unto the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him. And I'm not telling the whole story here this morning, but there's this other guy, Haman, that hates Mordecai and he wants to kill him. And so he's built this huge gallows that he's going to hang Mordecai on. And so he's excited about that. He wants to come in and get permission to do that. And so he's there and, The king said unto him, what shall be done unto the man whom the king delighted to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart, to whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself? Very proud man. And Haman answered the king, for the man whom the king delighted to honor, let the royal apparel be brought, which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal, which is set upon his head. And let this apparel and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal, whom the king delighted to honor, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city. and proclaim before him, thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor. Then the king said to Haman, make haste and take the apparel and the horse as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew that sitteth at the king's gate. Let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. And the irony of the story is wonderful. You know, the guy he hates, he's got to parade him around the city and honor him. But notice that phrase again and again. He whom the king delighteth to honor. As an earthly king, that king was conscious that there's men that have served me well, and I want to reward them. Now, this is what we want to get this morning. God has a book. We've already read about it when we read the scripture. We'll read it again. But God has this book, and he records in it those that are faithful to him. He keeps a record, because someday He's going to honor those that honored Him. And so the Bible tells us in Malachi 3, 16 through 18, Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon His name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. Okay, as God looks at it, and in that passage, it talked about those that fear God, those that think upon his name, the righteous, he that serveth God. You know, today, if I asked you, do you fear God, what would you say? The fear of the Lord is to depart from what? Evil. We talked in Sunday school about our expectations for those that would serve in our ministry, that they be people that have no sin harbored in their heart, that it's not somebody with unconfessed sin. And so somebody that fears God, what do they do? They depart from evil. you know, as you search your heart before God today, would you be written in this book as one that fears God? There's a friend of ours, Dr. Tom Johnson. He's kind of a crazy, a good kind of crazy guy. He's just not, he's just not normal. But he's fun. He loves the Lord. Powerful prayer line. And God has used him in a mighty way. He serves the Lord in Cambodia. And Dr. Tom Johnson, when that tsunami hit, Was it Indonesia, I think, back about 10 years ago? When that tsunami took place, Dr. Tom Johnson, he's a medical doctor that God called into missions, he took a group of guys and he went to that Muslim country to try to help. I mean, they were meeting people that had lost 30 relatives in the tsunami. I mean, just horrible suffering that these people are going through. Muslims the Muslims were against them and the Muslims were starting to to cause some violence around them and There came a point where they were in a car in this part of the city And there's car was surrounded by a mob that was rocking the car and there they basically thought they're going to be killed And the verse that came to dr. Tom Johnson's mind and I heard him share this testimony I don't know eight years ago or something at a Baptist world meeting. He said the thing that came to my mind is was the verse, the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them. He said, I thought to myself, do I really fear God? It's interesting, you look at him, I mean, this man serves God, this man's a preacher, this man, but at that point of critical need that he looked at his life, he had to examine his heart before God, do I really fear God? But you know what took place, he said, angels in SWAT gear, you know, with machine guns and stuff like that, all of a sudden were around the vehicle, not that they were really angels, but God put these men there, they calmed the crowd, and one of them jumped in and reversed them out of the crowd and got them safely away. Okay, it's an incredible story about God, the safety that God gave. But that question, do I really fear God? See, going to church doesn't mean that I fear God. Even reading my Bible doesn't mean that I fear God. If I fear God, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom. And if I fear the Lord, I depart from evil. Do you really fear God today? We have a very wicked society. Does God know if you're somebody like Noah that He looks down and goes, there's a righteous man living in an ungodly world? Does He look down and see Job and say, there's a righteous man living in an ungodly world? Does He look down and see Daniel and say, there's a righteous man that fears me even in that place of Babylonian wickedness that's there? See, what does God see today as He looks at us? We're not gonna get in that book by being an average Christian. And so is that fear of God. And so does that think about him. And so does that honor him. And remember, Malachi wrote this to people that said, it's vain to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? They're saying, what's the point? And you might be to the point in your life today where you look around and say, nobody else in Christianity has that highest standard. Nobody else in Christianity has that high of regard for the word of God, but by God's grace, as for me and my house, like Joshua said, we will serve the Lord. And God goes, name there. God has a record. Whosoever shall give a cup of cold water in my name, he'll in no wise lose his reward. What are you doing for God? See, let me encourage you today. Don't despair and think, well, nobody knows, nobody sees. Listen, we don't need anybody else to see. Run in your life for the audience of one. Just think about God, God sees me. I'm gonna honor God. I'm gonna please God. It doesn't matter if anybody else does. and get in that book, the book of remembrance. Two more books, okay? Two more books. So we got the book of the law. We've got the book of the blueprints. We've got the book of remembrance. The fourth book this morning is the book of life. The book of life. This is God's census book. This is the book that keeps a record of those that are citizens of heaven. and has that complete record of those to whom God has given everlasting life. And so the Bible tells us about this book in Revelation chapter 20 and verse 12. It says, I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And it goes on to say about those that go to hell, Revelation 20 verse 15, whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 21 verse 27, there shall no wise enter into it, heaven, anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. I'm thinking about writing a flyer and entitling it the most important book in the world. And guess what? It's not the Bible. It's the Book of Life. Why is it the most important? Because that book alone, at the judgment, is going to give you entrance into heaven, or going to give you eternity in hell. That's a serious book, isn't it? My dad, back when he was in college, he had just gotten married. I think he got, see, this is my dad's first wife that was killed in a car accident, and so that's why I don't know as much about her. But he had just gotten married, I think after his sophomore year in Bible college. And dad was very popular on campus, I think. He was the freshman class president. He traveled for the school as a pianist. He was very gifted in piano. When he comes the end of July, I'm sure you'll get to hear him play the piano, okay? They'll be here for a few weeks. But dad was very gifted that way and dad was studying music thinking that someday he would maybe be an evangelist, use music in evangelism. But he was training in music and he put himself by changing his major into grad level theory classes, very tough. It has to do not with how you play the piano but everything there is about music, okay, and actually writing music and that sort of thing. Dad knew the registrar at the college, and he got there. He's got his new bride out in the car. He's coming in. He's going to register for college. And for his junior year, he comes in and the face of the registrar, he said, just dropped when she saw him. I mean, just looked so sad. And she said to him, Mark, didn't you get my letter? And he said, what are you talking about? She said, you've been academically dismissed from the college. Because he got himself in those classes, he failed them all, and so he lost the ability to be in the college. He's just gotten married. He's gotta go out and tell his new bride, you know, I've been dismissed from the college. He's gotta call his parents and say, I didn't tell you about changing my major, but I did, and I failed, and I've been kicked out of college. It's a neat story how God works everything out after that. But my point is this. What will it be like someday for somebody to stumble for a God? And the angels take that book of life and they say, your name's not here. They won't say, I'm sorry. They won't say, oh, didn't you get my letter? They'll just say, the name is not here. And if that person could snatch that book and begin to look through it and look through it and look through it and look through it and say, surely I've got to be in here somewhere, what they'd find is their name is not in the Lamb's book of life. What a sad thing for people on that day to realize, you know what? It's not there. It's not there. Sadly, again, there'll be people that get there thinking that it's there. What disappointment. They're going to see, as they say in Matthew chapter 7 verse 21, They're gonna say, Lord, Lord. But Jesus said, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, in thy name have cast out devils, in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. They're gonna say, God, God, I did this for you, I did this for you, I did this for you, and God's gonna say, you didn't accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. You never took my gift of everlasting life. Your name's not in the book of life. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. Now, we're getting to a book that we look at and say it's either a joyous book, praise God, my name's in there, or it's a very sad book, my name's not there. And I want to ask you today, where is your name? Is it in the Lamb's Book of Life? It's a very important book. There's one more book that we got to look at this morning. And this book primarily just concerns, it just concerns those that don't have their name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Because if your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life, this book will not apply to you. And that's the book of God, of judgment. It's God's judgment book. It's the book of works. The book of works. God's judgment book. This book reveals to me that God knows every sin I've ever committed. Every trespass against God. Every time I said something I shouldn't say. Every time I thought something I shouldn't think. Every time I did something I shouldn't do. Every time I didn't do things I should do. Every time I didn't say things I should say. that God has a complete record of every transgression against him. Now, before we look at it, we'll just look at it briefly here this morning. This book, if you're saved, this book and everything in it was nailed to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ for you. The Lord says in Colossians 2.14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. See, all of us have that record of every sin that we've ever committed against God, but if Jesus Christ is our Savior today, and we've had the blood of Christ applied to our heart, then He died for every sin that we ever committed, and it was nailed to His cross so that He died guilty of lust, guilty of murder, guilty of adultery, guilty of all those sins that mankind has committed. That's where our record is today. So praise God. You could say, if you're saved today, just rejoice and say, praise God. He took that book of judgment against me, that book of my works, and he put it on his cross. But somebody that's not accepted Jesus, that book is there. And the Bible says the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. I can't explain this to you today, but I know from the Word of God that every sin that you've ever committed against God, somebody that's not saved, they're going to pay for that sin. The Bible says in Matthew 12, verse 36, I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give a counter of in the day of judgment. Even what somebody says, and our world said, no big deal what you say, say what you want to say, and every third or fifth word is a wicked word. God says every single word that you speak, you're going to give account thereof in the day of judgment. Even this week, as I've witnessed to a man down in Princess Street Gardens, I said to him, as he spoke about a sin he wished he had committed, I said, praise God you didn't, because can I tell you this, whether you're saved or not, whether you're born again or not, that you are going to give an account to God for that sin that you committed. That's the way it is. There's differences in judgment that the Bible speaks about. Luke 12, beginning of verse 42, the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But, and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men servant and maidens and to eat and drink and to be drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he's not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew the Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much, of him will they ask them more." You know what God just told me in his word? God said to those that have been given greater understanding, greater awareness, greater knowledge, that there's greater accountability. That somebody that, if you commit things worthy of stripes, you get stripes regardless, right? But the person that knew that God's will was this, and they refused to do it, and they said no, and they rejected God, guess what? The judgment's worse. It's different. Because God judges men according to His works, and so there is also that record, that complete record of every transgression that we've ever committed. And so, I don't know what you thought as we started the message today about God's books. You might have only been able to think of one book, this book of the law, but we looked at the book of blueprints that God designed us. We looked at the book of remembrance that God knows when we serve him. We looked at the book of life that God has of everybody that's born again. We looked at the book of works that God keeps a record of every transgression. But let me ask you again today, what book is most important to you right now? Which one is most important to you? Do you need to get your record cleansed from the Book of Works? Listen, you better start there. If you're not saved, you better understand that that Book of Works is going to be your ticket, not just to hell, but to a hotter hell. It has a record of every transgression against God. You gotta start with that and say, God, I want that on the cross of Christ. I want Jesus Christ as my Savior. If you'll deal with that, guess what? Your name will be in the book of life. And you won't have to worry about it anymore because you have that guarantee by God that you're in that book, that record that he has, the book of life. Perhaps today. If you were to die today and God took out his book of remembrance and said, you know, what did this person do? You know, did they fear me? Did they honor me? Did they serve me? Sadly, your record would be very small. And you might look at that and say, you know, God by your grace, that's not what I want. God, I want to get in that book, that record book of God, the book that says everything that I've done for you and how I'm serving you, how I fear you, no matter what anybody else is doing. It doesn't matter if somebody else has a longer page. It doesn't matter if anybody else has a smaller page. God, what matters to me is what you see of me. I want to be in that book of remembrance. Today, you might need to just say to God, God, I'm sorry I've been so upset at you for how you made me. God, thank you that you designed me just like this. Thank you that I'm just made according to your will. I'm perfect according to your plan. You gave me every talent, every ability that I need. Forgive me for being dissatisfied. Forgive me for being discontent. God, thank you for making me. And maybe today the decision that needs to be made is, you know what, I've got a book from heaven. I need to read that book. I need to know God's law so I can better serve God. So maybe it's just a covenant with God. God, by your grace, I'm gonna read your word. But praise God for his library. May the spirit of God help us to have a right place in that library, in those books as God intends. Let's pray. Father, may the spirit of God speak to our hearts today. Father, I praise you this morning that the spirit of God's able to work in hearts individually And Father, that's what we want. And I pray, Lord, maybe somebody's just thinking about all the sins that they've committed, being in that record book and thinking what that'll be like someday, to give an account to God and to be cast into hell. Maybe somebody's realizing their name's not in the Book of Life. They need to get in the Book of Life. They need to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, so that they have that guarantee of a place in heaven. Lord, it might be that Again, somebody needs to get burdened about doing things for God, not so that other people see it, but to have that record kept in God's book of those that fear Him and those that speak often of Him and do His will. Father, I pray that the Spirit of God help us be thankful for who we are, that You've designed us, that You've made us exactly who we ought to be. And Father, if somebody's really struggling with that, they've been bitter against you for making them the way they are, that God, they'd find a forgiveness with you today, and that they'd start thanking you for designing them the way you designed them. And Father, certainly that we'd approve of this book in our lives, that we would make it such a part of our life, because we have a book from heaven, that God, you allow us to borrow from heaven, to know everything there is to know about pleasing you. And so I just pray today, Spirit of God, speak to hearts. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.