Well, we're already in 1 Timothy. Let's just turn over the page or two. Go to 1 Timothy 4 and 13. Well, look at verse 11. Paul writing to Timothy, young preacher, young pastor. He said, these things command and teach. That's all the things he's been talking about previous here. Let no man despise thy youth. Despise doesn't mean hate. Gotta get over that. Despise, especially in the Bible, does not mean hate. You hear people use that word. Somebody says, oh, I hate you. Well, I'll despise you as if despise is more intense than hate, but it's not. Despise means Lightly regarded, not highly regarded. Hate means mental murder, but anyway. Let no man despise thy youth. Well, now youth is something we can all appreciate, especially those of who no longer have it. And we can recognize youth, and a lot of youth is wasted on the young. because they don't know what to do with it, they waste it. But let no man despise thy youth. And that would be for that young pastor to take care of business and people wouldn't want to regard his youth. But he says, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity and spirit, in faith, in purity, all those things that that young pastor is to demonstrate before those that he's ministering to. And he says, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. And take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continuing them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. So he says give attendance. That means don't stay away from it. Give attendance. to reading. Nothing different about the word, it means what it says, reading. Give attention to it, give attendance to it. Be there with it, keep doing it. We talk about reading and books. Let's see, I've got 2 Timothy 4, 13 here, but just for a second while I'm over there. Yeah, 2 Timothy 4, 12, and Tychicus, have I sent to Ephesus the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with me thee, that is the cloak and the books, but especially the parchments. And what I'm trying to establish here is that the very real subject of books and reading, some people act like it's not very important. But it certainly was to the Apostle Paul and to the others, and we'll get some more here in just a minute. Kind of put down by people through the years for reading too much, studying too much. I've had him in this pulpit and he's too educated. Well, the Bible certainly does not okay ignorance. I remember a movie, I forget the name of it, about fly fishing up in Montana. You'd like that one. And this guy was a Presbyterian pastor. And I remember what he said. He gave us the difference between Presbyterians and Baptists. He said, Presbyterians are Baptists that can read. like Baptists or ignoramuses. Well, now certainly that can go too far, but we ought not to be known as ignoramuses and reading is very, very near and dear to us. Now, uh, I want to go back all the way back to Genesis chapter five. Now the Hebrew word for book is sefer. Look at Genesis five and verse one. This is the, well I'll be, book of the generations of Adam and the day that God created man and the likeness of God made him. the book of the generations of Adam. Well, now of course Moses is writing this, but this came no doubt directly from God. So we're looking at all the way back shortly after the creation week. And God is already talking about a book. Now you know this world says that human beings didn't even start to talk for several million years until the visual cortex of the brain evolved Look it up. You'll see what they say. Millions of years evolution got us before we could even talk. But you know, I have a little problem with that. Turn back in Genesis now to chapter three. First off, we can see that The devil talked and he spoke to Eve. She understood him and conversed with him. Now you see what the world does. They've got you half monkeys. There was one of the movies, talking about the history of the world or something, that's how it started. A bunch of half apes. God didn't create any such thing as that. Apes still can't talk. They weren't designed to. But human beings didn't evolve. They started out talking. Adam named the animals. How big a list could you make of all kinds of animals? It would take a little literary skill to do that, wouldn't it? Adam named them all. And in chapter three, verse seven, or six, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree, to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat." Of course, he shouldn't have done that. She shouldn't have done that. But you think, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. They conversed. And then in verse seven, the eyes of them both were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. I think they had to communicate in doing that. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called to Adam and said unto him, where art thou? I want you to name me an animal that would understand that and give you an answer. You may have your dog or whatever trained, but they can't give you an answer to a question like that. Adam, where art thou? Now, what language? I think it was Hebrew. Now, I can't be proven wrong on that, and I think that's what'll be spoken in heaven. Men didn't devise the Hebrew language. And there Adam said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? That involves communication, linguistic communications. Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I command thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to me, or to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said to the woman, both of them are conversing with God. He's talking to them, and they're talking to God. With an intelligible language. And God said, I'll put enmity between thee and the woman. They heard and understood the curse. Now, they didn't evolve visual cortex. Whatever you've got in your brain, what do they call that? Irreducible complexity? You gotta have it all. Well, you take somebody that's born without part of their brain, they never get right. You've got to have it all. Now, it's impossible to evolve anything. Secondly, they say it took 135,000 years before they began to write. But here in Genesis 5, We're in the vicinity of 6,000 years ago. God says, this is the book of the generations of Adam. So we've had linguistic ability. We've had writing. Moses couldn't have got any writings. They didn't know how to write back. Sure they did. Sure they did. I think it's in Haley's handbook on the Bible and his archeology, biblical archeology. They, on an archeological dig, they uncovered Ur of the Chaldees back in the 30s. I forget, Albright, I don't know which one did it, but anyway. Up to that time, the liberals had said that was only a myth. There was no Ur of the Chaldees. They also discovered that Abraham, or Abram at the time, attended a one-room school. Now you know what, those that study education, they say that the most effective school there is is a one-room school. when you've got the grades together. The older grades bring on the younger grades. Most effective education. They also found handheld tablets, chalkboards, to write. And that was 4,000 years ago. Books, writing, reading, speaking. They didn't come out of the Garden of Eden when God drove them out. They didn't come out of there ignorant of anything that they needed to live. They didn't discover fire, that's a big lie. Man did not discover fire. That's one of the first things they tell you about so-called cavemen. Ain't nothing wrong with cavemen. If you was out in the wilderness and you could find a cave, you're in good shape. You can live without building the place. You don't need air conditioning, you don't need heat. And you got one way in, one way out. Good to defend. Good for the weather. So men did not learn. They said, well, how in the world could they ever, they didn't. How could you live long enough to discover fire? Can you imagine being in any kind of, I mean, even in the tropics, you gotta have fire. You couldn't, you'd freeze before, you couldn't live long enough to discover fire. So anyway, so we got book well While we're on this There are 138 citations in the Old Testament, a book. There are 37 in the New Testament. And the word book is biblos. The word books is biblios. The name for the Bible is ta biblia, the books. 66 books make one. This is the books. We are people of the book, dear. And books mean you must read. Now, there have been lots of people that never learned how to read. And that was a shame. But I've known people since I've been pastor here that came before this church and asked this church to pray for them that they would be able to learn how to read so they could read the Bible to their family. What a commendable thing. You've heard of Uncle Tom's Cabin. You know people, all that black guy, he's an Uncle Tom. Baptist preachers, bad mouth Uncle Tom. Read the book, read the book and find out he was a slave in Bourbon County. And he was saved and he learned how to read the Bible so he could witness to everybody else. He was an honorable believer, Christian, worthy of talking about good. And they defile him, defile his name. I'd love to talk to some of them, because I would. You just shut your ignorant mouth and find out what you're talking about. You say you're a Baptist preacher, what do you preach? Anyway. Look at Exodus 24. Verse 7. And he took the book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people. And they said, all that the Lord has said will we do? and be obedient. The only way we can hear from God is through reading. If you're deaf and mute, you can still read. You can get God's Word. I'm gonna have time to do all this, but I just wanna give you this. Look at Matthew 12. Y'all excuse me on that, I can't help it. Matthew 12. I've got, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. About eight or nine references of this. Look what Jesus says in verse three. But he said unto them, Have you not read what David did when he was hungered and they that were with him? Verse five, have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath days the priest and the temple profaned the Sabbath and are blameless? Have you not read Sounds to me like he expected those people to have read. They should have given attendance to reading of the word. Many more references there. Look at the book of Acts. Acts 8. I'll start in verse 26. The angel of the Lord spoke unto Philip, saying, Arise, go toward the south, and the way goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza. which is desert. And he arose and went, behold, a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for the worship. He was an educated man. Returning and sitting in his chariot, he read Isaiah the prophet. Smart man, but he had a problem. Philip ran thither to him, verse 30, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah. So he read it, and he could understand what he was saying. And then Philip said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired or asked Philip that he would come up and sit with him. And the place of the scripture which he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, like a lamb done before his shearer. So opened he not his mouth, and his humiliation, his judgment, was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life was taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered, Philip said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet? This, of himself, or of some other man? Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And then the man was saved. Of course, I think that's where the Donalds got their start. Went on back to Egypt, saved man with scripture baptism. Anyway, reading, give attendance to reading. It's Old Testament doctrine, it's New Testament doctrine. Brother Bronx says there's only one book he would recommend with no reservations, and that's the Bible. Only one. Out of all the books, he said to study the Bible, you must have a King James Bible, and he said that. A good English dictionary and a good Bible concordance. Well, That's what you need. I believe you ought to wire dictionaries out. I was going to do this. I don't have time to do much of it. Colossians, real quick. One time Colossians chapter three. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry. That's that one verse I've seen at least twice preachers humiliate themselves off that verse. Let's see what we can find out here. First, let's look over here. Mortify. I expect all y'all know what that word means. But if you didn't, just take the time to go to your English dictionary. This is Webster's. Well, it's right here. Mortify. To destroy the strength, vitality, or functioning, to subdue or deaden for the body or bodily appetites by abstinence or self-inflicted pain to discomfort. There's the meaning. Let's try the other one there, the concupiscence. Here we go. Concupiscence. You've even got your pronunciations in here. Concupiscence. Desire ardently. Strong desire, sexual desire. Of course, you've got the enunciation there. There you go. Say, well, I don't understand the words. Get a dictionary. Now this is old now, but this is my new one. I've wore out two others. Somebody gave me this last one. I think Brother Preston gave me this one. But I've worn them out. By using them, that's how you wear them out. That's why books don't last forever, if you use them. Young's Analytical Concordance. Now, I think I like Young's better than Strong's, but Strong's is the one on that program. But this concordance supposedly has every word in the Bible. This was a spinoff from the old concordance, Cruden's concordance. I've got one of those too. But now let's just say here's a concordance, and you want to find a word, find out a verse, And you don't know where it is. About salt. Let's see what I can find out here. Here we go. All right. Now, my verse I was looking for was, can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? Well, I know where it is, but here it is. Well, Job chapter six, verse six. All you need to know is a word out of a verse that stand out and look that up. You can find about anything you want to. There used to be somebody on the radio. He had big following, people calling in, because he'd give prizes. You got to stump the preacher. And you had to give him a scripture he couldn't find. Well, he was sitting there with two or three concordances. So he wasn't going to lose. But anyway. And then, so part of that from last night is not only we need to read the Bible, this is the book, but there's nothing wrong with other books. If they help you, just as Philip helped the Ethiopian unit verbally, but what if he'd had a little booklet from him? It could have been the same. Anyway, so there are short books. Brother Brown said he is, His messages had at least the virtue of brevity, meaning a virtue is something good. One good thing about his sermons is they're short. Well, in this modern day and age, people just don't read a lot. And I guess you got so many things pulling at you, you can't do it. I used to have a book. I think my wife has it now. William Gurnall, the Christian in complete armor, and it was written back in the late 1600s. On the last few verses of Ephesians 6, put on the whole armor of God, I believe that book is small print, 1,300 pages, just on those few verses. We really don't have much time like that anymore. But here I want to give you one brief book. The Complete Score of Roscoe Brom's Short Sermons. Now I don't remember how many. There's several hundred sermons here. And you look them under the title. And it doesn't take you long to read any one of them. And they're absolutely great. I want to encourage that. We've still got plenty of these books we need to get rid of. And then there are others. We've got them in the bookstore. We get them from Bryan Station. They print a bunch of them. And there's a bunch of good books available. Anyway, I think our time is about up. Hopefully, this should be an encouragement to reading. Matter of fact, give attendance to it. Stay with it. And God speaks to us through his word.