Our speaker for this evening, we are very honored to have Dr. Tom Malone with us. Dr. Tom Malone is the pastor of the Emanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac, Michigan. He also is the founder of the Midwestern Baptist College, which is also located in Pontiac, Michigan. Dr. Malone is internationally known as a pastor, also as an educator. He's considered by some to be one of the greatest speakers that we have in the America today. Some of Dr. Malone's graduates, I just talked with him, they had their graduation Sunday night a week ago. and their graduation is over for this year, but some of his graduates from the Midwestern Baptist College are being used across America in many fields of Christian service. Dr. Malone is also an author of many books and he's an editor of a Christian periodical. We're very honored to have Dr. Tom Malone from Pontiac, Michigan as our guest speaker tonight. You listen now not only with your ears, as our pastor would say, but you listen with your hearts as well for what God's man has for you tonight. Dr. Malone. Certainly mighty happy to be here, and I was just sitting there thinking how unworthy I am to be here and to speak on this occasion until I heard this wonderful introduction by Brother Shearer. And since hearing that, I feel I deserve to be here and deserve to be the speaker for this occasion. I want to congratulate you folks, seriously. I would like to congratulate, first of all, this great church for mothering and sponsoring a Christian school. I think, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that a church pays a great price in order to have a Christian educational program. There must be great physical and human energy diverted to Christian education and, of course, finance. And I'm sure that a church pays a great price in order to have a Christian school. But I believe God honors it. And I believe only heaven will reveal the rewards for this great church and its interest in the youth of this city. I'd like to congratulate these young people. While thousands, thousands of young people have no thought of God, have no thought of a Christian education, I am profoundly impressed by the testimonies of these young people tonight. To have the Lord first in their life and the Word of God to be the book of their life as they reach this milestone in their education is a wonderful thing. You know, the devil hates a Christian education. I used to hear Dr. Bob Jones Sr. say that if he had an enemy he wanted to get even with, he'd talk him into starting a Christian school, and that's the way he'd get even with him. And I believe there's something to that. Satan hates a Christian school and fights it with all of his subtle power. But I congratulate you and may God bless you. It's wonderful to be here on this occasion tonight. Now I want to read a passage from the Old Testament. and speak to you for a few minutes about the Word of God, and I believe something the Lord's laid upon our heart for this night. In the 34th chapter of the book of 2 Chronicles, we read about a wonderful young man. I could not help but think of him as we listen to these tremendous testimonies from these young people tonight. This young man's name was Josiah. He was the king of Judah, king over the people of God, and he came to be so at a very tender age. You will see in the scripture here that he was only eight years of age when he became king, and he was a godly young man even at that age. Let me read you about Josiah tonight for a few moments and speak to you the message we believe God's put upon our heart. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. I would remind you and suggest to you he began to reign when he was eight years of age, and it says when he'd reigned eight years he began to seek after the God of David his father. He was 16 years of age when he began with all of his heart to seek after God and his ways and his truth and his word. I'll read on. In the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they break down the altars of Balaam in his presence, and the images that were on high above them he cut down. And the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images he break in pieces and made dust of them, and strode it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even under Naphtali, with their maddox round about. When he'd broken down the altars and the groves and had beaten the graven images into powder and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. I shall not read all this chapter, but I will mention to you that in verse 8, he gave a command to repair the house of the Lord his God. Now then in this days of repairing the house of God, This tremendous thing happened that I want to call to your attention tonight. We'll begin reading in verse 14. When they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkar the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkar answered and said to Shapehand the scribe, I found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkar delivered the book to Shapan. And Shapan carried the book to the king and brought the king word back again saying, all that was committed to thy servants they do it. They've gathered together the money that was found in the house of the Lord and delivered into the hand of overseers and to the hand of the workmen. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkar the priest hath given me a book. And Shapin read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Aharcom, the son of Shapin, and Abedin, the son of Micah, and Shapin, the scribe, and Asaar, a servant of the king, saying, Go inquire of the Lord for me and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that is found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book. And I want to mention just an expression to you tonight, found in verse 15, where a man said, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. This is something that happened in the illustrious ministry of a very young man. When he was eight years of age, it providently fell his luck to become the king over the people of God and over the nation of Judah. When he was 16 years of age, the Bible says he began to seek the Lord in a wonderful way. He brought about a great revival in the kingdom and great reformation in the kingdom. He purged the land when he was 16 years of age. He purged the land of all the altars of the heathen gods. But there was a strange thing that had taken place in the house of God which had fallen in bad repair. In the house of the Lord where there had been no worship of God for several years, perhaps eight years. In the house of God that had been so tremendously neglected, there was a book that had been covered with debris and dirt and dust. and a book that had been lost to the people for at least eight years. When this young godly king said, repair the house of the Lord, in the midst of those preparations and that work in God's house, one all of a sudden exclaimed and said, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. I'm so happy that they found it. But I'm impressed tonight with the fact that for eight years that book of God, and maybe the only book of God in the whole kingdom, that book of God had been lost and buried. No one spoke of it. No one seemed to miss it. No one seemed to realize that the Bible was a lost book. for those long years, a lost book, the Bible, the Word of God. I think there is a correlation to the day and hour in which you and I are living tonight. I think there are ways in which it is absolutely true that the Bible is a lost book. The Bible tonight is buried, I'm sure, in many instances under a godless system of education in America. Prayer no longer permitted in the schools, the word of God has been cast from the halls of American institutions, and the Bible is a buried book tonight and a lost book in the educational system of America. I know a folks-able preacher. I know a school teacher. I know a principal. I know a school board member who's a born-again Christian. So do I. But the educational system of America tonight and knows no Bible, and to that system the Bible is like a lost book. A young man came to my office some time ago. He was attending one of the large universities in the eastern part of our country. And he said, Mr. Malone, do you believe the Bible to be true, believe it to be the word of God? Do you believe in what's called the inspiration of the Bible? And I said, well, I surely do. He said, Mr. Malone, you need more light. You need more education about this matter. He said, I've learned in the college where I'm attending that the Bible is just a group of myths that have been brought together and some history, but it's not the Word of God. I said, son, who told you, who taught you the Bible is not God's book and it's not the Word of God. He said, well, all our professors teach us that. You've already accepted the fact that you say that the Bible is not true, that it's not the Word of God. There is no such thing as an inspired book of God, you say. Let me ask you, have you ever read the Bible, the Word of God? He said, no, I've never read the Bible. He said, when I was young, there was in our home a little book of Bible stories. I remember reading some of those myths. about David and the Giant, Daniel and the Lion's Den, the children of Israel crossing the sea on dry land. I read some of those Bible stories, but I've never read the Bible. And I said to that young man, young man, if I were to say of a book that it is false, that it is not real, and it's not true, and I had never read it, you'd call me an ignorant fool. I cannot help but think how pitiful it is that a young man under the guise of education would brand the Bible as being a book of fallacy who's never even read it. I'm saying to you folks tonight that the Bible is a buried book in the godless educational system of America. God bless you and give you strength and faith and courage as you continue to support a Christian education program. The Bible's buried under religious perversion. religious schools all over our nation tonight, supported by the churches and denominations, are burying the Bible. And to them, the true Word of God is a lost book. It's a lost Bible. I visited a campus some years ago of a large religious school, one of the largest in America, As I walked around that campus with a few other preachers and myself, we met a man who was a maintenance man. I said to the man, what kind of school is this? I knew what kind it was. I knew it didn't believe the Bible. I knew they didn't believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I knew that there was no rules, no regulation, no discipline, no morals, no standards. I said, what kind of school is this? That man said to me, he said, sir, if you could be here as I am, walk around these buildings, around this campus, and in and out on these grounds, if you could see the things that I pick up on this campus, if you could see the debris that is scattered all over this campus, it would tell you the story of what kind of a college and university this is. And yet it was a religious school, but the Bible to them was a lost book. You know, the Bible's buried today under a philosophy of human behaviorism. That is, young folks ought to be allowed to do whatever they want to do. They ought to be allowed to do their thing, so to speak. And the Bible does not go along with that. And the Word of God is a lost book in the philosophy of man today. Now, the Bible is the most wonderful thing in the world. I do not believe that a person could be truly educated who does not have a Bible education. And I do not believe that anyone in the world could say that one who knows the Bible is without education, whether he ever had formal training or not. I think of a dear man that lived in Michigan. He was a businessman, wonderful man. He loved the Bible. The Bible meant everything to him. He was in business, but his main purpose in life was to get the Bible into the hands of people. He'd buy a dozen Bibles. He'd look for every opportunity to witness to someone, give them a Bible. And he had bought a dozen Bibles at this time. Ten of them he'd given away. Two of them he still had, when one day some thieves and murderers knew that in his business he had a certain amount of money, so they attacked him. They stabbed him to death. They killed Earl Dorman and took his money, and there were two Bibles left in his business. And when his wife was told there are two Bibles left in the business, and she was asked what will be done with them. She said there are two men convicted of murder, two men who robbed him, two men who killed him. If he could have his way, he'd want those two books, the two Bibles, to be given to those two men. The greatest thing ever done for anyone. is to get them under the sound of the Word of God. Now, when the Bible is lost, there's no true revelation of God. No one can know God without knowing Him from this book. Jesus said in John 5, 39, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. Hebrews 10, 7, in the volume of the book, it is written of me, I came to do thy will, O God. No one, not through religion, not through education, no one shall ever know God unless they know Him through this book. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. When the Bible is a lost book in the minds and lives of people, there's no knowledge of sin. My dear friends, I would suggest to you tonight that what we need in this country And what we need in the life of every man and woman is a knowledge of what the Bible teaches about the total depravity of the human heart. For without that, there is no desire for salvation and no need for salvation without knowing that man is lost, that all is sin, and comes short of the glory of God. I would ask you tonight to come in your mind in your imagination for a moment, go with me to some remote part of the world where men is uncivilized. And I would ask you tonight to see with me a man and others dancing with naked bodies around a jungle fire. And I would ask you tonight, what's the difference between that man Who is a naked man has no guilt, no conviction, no compunction about it whatsoever. What's the difference between that man and you and I who are in this building tonight? You and I have come under the sound of the Word of God. See that man in that jungle with 10, 15, 20 wives, not one. What's the difference tonight between those in this service and that man? You have come under the knowledge of the Word of God. He hasn't. You see the Bible, when the Bible is lost, there's no knowledge of sin. When the Bible is lost, there's no knowledge of separation. How will man know he's to live different as a Christian, a child of God, unless he sees it in the Word of God? Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Come ye out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a father unto you, and you shall be sons and daughters unto me. When the Bible is lost, there are no standards. When the Bible is lost, there is no separation. You know, folks criticize us fundamental Bible-believing people for the stand we take. They say, well, those folks are kind of peculiar. You can say that again. We are. Bible never told us to be popular, but it certainly told us that when we know Him and follow Him and His Word, we will be peculiar. I had the privilege to hear some of the great old preachers of one generation ago. One of them was a wonderful man by the name of Dr. Lewis S. Bowman. The only thing I found wrong with him, he wasn't a Baptist, but my, he was a great man, and he loved the Word of God, and he was a great preacher, great Bible teacher. He had a habit when he was preaching, he'd say a certain thing as he preached. He'd say, it's in the book. What are you going to do about it? And one day he went visiting, and a lady of the home said, Dr. Bowman, I wish you'd come back out of the house and down the driveway to the back of the house. And my little boy and his little neighborhood friends were out there, and they're playing. And I want you to see what they're doing. So he went out, and they'd set up like church, and there were a dozen or so children. And one little fellow was standing up preaching, and he was being Dr. Bowman. And he'd say, you must be born again. He'd say, Jesus died on the cross for you. Then he'd say, it's in the book. What are you going to do about it? That's what Dr. Bowman would always say. He'd preach with wonderful power. Then he'd say, it's in the book. What are you going to do about it? The little fella would say some more, he'd say, the Lord loves you, you'll go to hell without Him. What are you going to do about it? And I say to the whole world tonight, it's in the Bible, what will you do about it? When the Bible is lost, there is no separation. There's no emphasis on blood redemption and the cross where Jesus died, robed in blood and crowned with thorns. And when the Bible is lost, There is no hope for the future. For without this book and the Christ it reveals, there is no hope for the future. I never will forget an experience some years ago going to Lubbock, Texas to speak in a conference for a few days. I was met at the plane by a preacher and a preacher friend of his and the preacher's little sweet 12-year-old daughter. She was a wonderful little Christian, and she was a great talker. And the two preachers sat in the front seat, and I sat in the back seat with a little 12-year-old believer, and she was telling me all about the city and about the work of the Lord. And a cyclone had hit Lubbock, Texas not long before that, and 26 people had been killed. And as we drove along, we saw areas where all the houses had been destroyed with a fierce storm. And as we reached the near to downtown Lubbock, Texas, the little girl pointed to me to a building probably 12 or 14 stories high that leaned like the Tower of Pisa. And she said that building was straight before the storm came. The windows were all out. It had been condemned. She said, the storm blew that building to where it leans like it does. And she said, now it has to be torn down. And she continued to talk. And the little 12-year-old believer told me this wonderful story. and her father testified that it was true. She said when the cyclone came and her houses were destroyed and buildings were destroyed and people were killed, she said a wonderful thing happened. She said when they were walking among the debris and the destroyed homes looking for bodies, someone found a table that sat still upright And the whole home was destroyed. On that table was a Bible, not a leaf torn, not a soiled page. And it was opened to Psalm 83 verse 15. And that verse marked in that Bible. And that verse said, So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. And a little 12-year-old girl said to me, Brother Malone, isn't it wonderful that though the storm destroyed homes and buildings and people, it could not destroy the Word of God? I said, yes, that's the most wonderful thing you and I have to hold on to. Thank God the Bible is not lost tonight. We hold it in our hands. We hide it in our heart. We preach it with our lips. We believe it with our soul. And may the Bible always, in your life, your institution, be the greatest textbook of all. Thank God for the Bible, and may God bless you.