Psalm 19 (General and Specific Revelation, Jeff Kliewer)

to value your word and to savor your word and to be saved by belief in what you have said.

In Jesus name we pray, amen. Have you been spending yourself on the

Word of God? Have you been spending your time and your energy to value the

Word of God? Let's review some of the Psalms that we've covered in recent weeks.

We began this series in Psalm 34 and it tells us, oh taste and see that the

Lord is good. It tells us magnify the Lord with me. It begins by telling us to bless the

Lord and praise the Lord. Does anybody remember the Hebrew word for praise? It rhymes with tequila.

Tequila, very good. Tequila. In Psalm 34 we're called to praise

God from the depths of our heart to magnify the Lord. In Psalm 110 we saw the

Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

It's a Messianic Psalm that speaks of the coming Son of God and we learn in the fourth verse of that chapter that Melchizedek, the priest that came to Abraham way back in Genesis 14 was a prefigurement of the coming priest, the great high priest

Jesus Christ. Hebrew 7 explained to us how that is the case. In the third week we moved on to Psalm 22.

Psalm 22 begins with, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But it wasn't just David crying out to his

God, he was speaking prophetically in the spirit of the Son of David who would be betrayed and surrounded by Gentiles, dogs, as the

Psalm puts it. He would be pierced through his hands and feet, his tongue would stick to the roof of his mouth, his bones would be out of joint, soldiers would gamble for his clothes at the foot of the cross.

All of this was foretold in Psalm 22 but it ends on a high note turning our attention to the deliverance that comes when he is rescued through resurrection.

And finally generation will tell generation one after another what? That he has done it.

Psalm 22. Then we moved on to Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, leads me beside still waters, restores my soul, makes me walks in path of righteousness for his namesake.

And we we know that in the time of testing, in the hour of death, yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil. Your rod and your staff they comfort me. He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies, anoints our head with oil, our cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the

Lord forever. The 23rd Psalm tastes good.

Does it taste good to you? Does it say, is it a savory taste to you? Do you delight in it?

That's Psalm 23. Then we moved on to the 24th Psalm and we saw that the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof.

All things are his and as earth dwellers were called to bless his holy name. And then it moves on in the second half to the

King of Glory. The question is asked, who is this King of Glory? David didn't know because he was before the

King of Glory. Yet it was the Son of David and Jesus is the King of Glory pictured in Psalm 24.

After that we moved on to Psalm 91, the Soldier's Psalm. You will not fear the arrow that flies by day or the pestilence that stalks at night.

The Lord is our guard. He's our shield. He's the rock that we run into. We're safe in him.

The Psalms are valuable and the point of the message today, we're going to Psalm 19, the overarching idea is the

Word of God. Often we preach the Word of God to see God and that's the whole point. The Scriptures are a tool that God uses to bring us to him.

The final endgame of the Scriptures are not the Scriptures themselves, but God himself.

The revelation of the Word of God is that we would know him, the author of the Word, but sometimes God will turn and direct our attention to his very words.

That's what he does in Psalm 19. Because if you want to have a relationship with someone, if you want to know someone, one of the most important things is that you communicate, that you listen, that you hear what the person is saying.

If you say that you love God, do you hear his word? That's the issue.

Is your heart attentive? Do you value what he says? Do you taste what he says and savor it? So Psalm 19,

I call it the general and specific revelation of God. General.

General because it moves from the creation of the world, which generally speaks to all people everywhere.

When you see the stars and the moon and the Sun, God is generally revealing who he is.

All people are able to see that. But then the Psalm in the second section moves to the specific revelation of God.

What does he specifically say to us? How can a man be saved? How can our ways be made right before him?

He speaks to us through his word. God speaks to humanity through general and specific revelation.

The latter, the specific revelation, the Bible, is infinitely valuable, incomparably delightful, and eternally decisive.

You'll see in the first chapter, if you could turn with me to Psalm 19, you'll see in the first verse, excuse me, the heavens declare the glory of God.

That word for God in Psalm 19 verse 1 is El. It's just the general name of God.

You could use the word El to refer to false gods or even to people at certain places in the

Psalms. It's a more general term for God, for the highest being, for the

Almighty. You see that used once in Psalm 19 verse 1.

But if you look from verses 7 to 14, you'll notice the covenant specific name of God is used seven times.

Six times in a row from verses 7 to 11, actually through 9, and then again in verse 14.

That specific name, the capital L -O -R -D, is

Yahweh, which we get Jehovah from Yahweh. The specific covenant name of God.

So the Psalm, big picture here, it moves from the general revelation of God in nature, verses 1 to 6, to the specific revelation of who this covenant

God is by name, Yahweh, that you can know him and walk with him, verses 7 through 9.

Verses 10 and 11 then, we get this thrust of how we are to treasure him, value what he says, value the word, to enjoy and delight in the word, and to be saved by it.

And finally, the Psalm in the last three verses, 12 to 14, moves deeply inward.

So the word is coming to us generally from the sky, and it's coming to us specifically through the scripture.

Now it's to accomplish something on the inside of us, dividing the thoughts and intentions of our hearts.

So that's where we're going today. Three big movements from the general, to the specific, to the inward places of our own lives.

The general, 19, 1 through 6, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom, leaving his chamber, and like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Here we have the general revelation of God. God is speaking, mind you, through the heavens.

When you wake up in the morning, and you look outside, and you see creation, God is speaking.

Now we're told he uses no words, there's no speech, there's no language, no voice using, yet God is speaking.

He's communicating something. So what is he saying? Let's turn over quickly to Romans chapter 1, to a parallel passage.

I think Paul has Psalm 19 in mind as he moves through. Romans chapter 1, we're just going to read verses 18 to 24.

In Romans chapter 1, Paul begins his argument for why we need a

Savior with general revelation. What is it that God communicates?

All of us can see the stars at night if it's not cloudy. What is God saying by that?

Romans chapter 1, verse 18 and following, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Mark that word, suppress. For what can be known about God is plain to them.

Here's the answer to my question, what is it that God's saying? When he's declaring something through the heavens, what is he saying?

What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to him for his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived.

So the first thing I want you to notice in Romans 1, all people are being told day after day that there is a

God, a divine being that made everything, and this God has eternal power.

If you see stars, you know there is some God who's powerful enough to hang stars in the sky.

This is what the stars are telling you, that there is a God and he has all power, because the universe is vast and the

God who can make this is all -powerful. And guys, what this scripture is telling us is that everybody knows that.

And you say, wait a minute, half of my friends are atheists. Well, we'll get to that in just a second.

Two things I want you to notice next, people know this in the depths of their heart, but they suppress that knowledge.

You guys ever been at the beach and you had a beach ball and you try to hold that thing underwater? It takes effort to grab a beach ball and push it down under the water.

Its natural tendency is to come back up. You have to suppress the beach ball to hold it underwater.

People suppress the knowledge of God. They're being told that there is a God, but they suppress that knowledge and call themselves an atheist.

What else do they do? One, they suppress it. Two, they exchange the glory of God for created things.

So these are the two thrusts that we see. In verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God nor give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged, mark that word, exchanged the glory of the immortal

God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

People make idols out of the creation. In fact, the very stars and the

Sun and the Moon that Psalm 19 talks about become the items of their worship.

Many mystery religions worship the Sun, they worship the Moon, they worship the stars.

Created objects that point to a God that's higher than them and yet they become the object of worship.

People exchange the glory of God for created things and probably the the main thing that people exchange the glory of God for is themselves.

Placing themselves at the center of the universe and worshiping and serving their own bodies and their own lives, their own appetites, desires, lusts of the flesh, pride of the eyes, and of life.

So God is angry. Verse 18 tells us the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. He has wrath against this exchange that's taking place.

When his truth that he's speaking all the time, day in and day out, is suppressed and exchanged for idolatry, he has wrath.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all this ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who in unrighteousness suppress the truth.

He has wrath. And so concluding from this section in Romans, we understand that the general revelation of God in creation is not enough to save the islander who can see the stars and they know there's a

God. Nevertheless, is rebellious against that God and like the rest of us who do the same thing as that islander, he suppresses the truth and he worships idols and creates gods of his own fascination.

All of humanity does this. This is the universal problem of man according to Romans chapter 1.

So go back with me now to Psalm 19. The general revelation of God is not enough to save, but for a saved person like David he can delight in it.

It's pouring out speech and David hears those words. Verse 2, day to day it pours out speech, but men suppress that truth in unrighteousness.

There was a man named A .E. Wilder Smith who was alive in the 1980s. He's gone on to be with the

Lord at this point in time, but he was he ran with Carl Sagan and you know Stephen Hawking's and some of these great scientists of the world who look into the stars to try to try to determine what is the creation, how did it all, where did it all come from.

These scientists were together one day and A .E. Wilder Smith, a believer, was visiting with Carl Sagan, the atheist who says there is no

God. Sagan suppresses the truth in unrighteousness. Sagan was explaining to Wilder Smith what it was that his research was after.

He said he was looking for a sequential ordering of sounds coming from the cosmos.

So he would turn his telescope upwards and look for sequences because he said if I can find sequences that means that there is a creator.

And he didn't mean creator God, he meant some kind of alien life, some kind of life in the cosmos.

And Wilder Smith said would you put down your telescope for a minute and come look through my microscope.

I want to show you the ordered sequence of the DNA and the double helix.

And Wilder Smith who was at that time considered one of the 12 brightest men on the planet, brilliant scientist, multiple

PhDs across many disciplines, he says that Carl Sagan refused to look through that microscope.

Couldn't get him to do it because he knew, he understood the implication that if there is this ordered sequence of DNA there had to be a

God that designed it. It didn't just evolve out of nowhere. There had to be a

God. He was suppressing that truth. Do you know that the planet that we live on spins around the

Sun and is set on just the kind of angle that allows life to exist where it does.

Some scientists have looked into the possibility of there being life on another planet and concluded that the chances are infinitesimally small because every condition for life is met on Earth.

But there's so many different variables that would all have to come together that even all the stars in the universe couldn't support life.

There's no other planet like Earth. There's a documentary called Privileged Planet I recommend you watch at some point.

It just shows that God has so privileged this planet, making everything perfectly with an atmosphere to protect us, the right distance from the

Sun, tilted on the right axis with the moon to create tides, with every chemical necessary to support life.

This life, this planet is privileged because God made it for us to support life.

The more you look into science, the more you see that. People who deny that, it's not that they don't know.

It's that they're willfully, maybe they don't recognize their motives, but they are suppressing the truth that God is declaring in Psalm 19 1 to 4.

Their voice is going out to all the earth. So in verses 5 and 6 he gives one more example. What is it? The Sun.

He calls our attention to the Sun, not here the Son of God, but that ball of fire that runs its course.

The Earth is set like a, the universe is set like a tent for the Sun. It comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, so eager to start the day, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.

I don't always run with joy. Sometimes when I run, it's not with joy. It's just, you're running to be done running.

That's the point of running, but this strong man here is eager to do it and has endless strength to do it.

It doesn't seem tiring to the Sun to run its course. It's rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Isaac Newton was a famous scientist who believed in the Word of God.

Did you know that at one point in Isaac Newton's life, he stared at the Sun for as long as he could just to find out what would happen?

He fortunately wasn't blinded, but spent two days in a dark room until he could recover little by little his vision.

But Isaac Newton was so brilliant that when the bubonic plague hit the land, everybody was sent.

He, I think, was at Cambridge. Everybody was sent home, and at his manor at home, while the bubonic plague was sweeping through, he just did research on his own, and during those months while he was secluded, he discovered gravity.

He literally figured out the principle of gravity. He discovered calculus, and he discovered white light.

That the white light is that the full spectrum of all the colors come together. He made those three discoveries on his own.

Sometimes he wouldn't even publish his discoveries. One time this guy named Halley, you guys remember Halley's Comet?

Well, Halley was the scientist that named Halley's Comet. He came to visit Isaac Newton and asked him about the orbit of planets, because he and some other friends were trying to sort out this question.

When he got to see Newton, he asked the question, what do you think about these particular planets in their orbit?

And he said, oh, that's easy. It's an elliptical orbit, and he began to answer it all, and the guy was just dumbfounded.

How do you know this? Ten years before, Newton had made the discovery and just never published his work.

He just left it on, so he's scurrying around finding papers, looking through, and so here's all the math.

He figured it out, gave it to Halley, and Halley won the bet with his friends. This is the brilliance of Isaac Newton, but do you know this?

Isaac Newton studied the Bible far more than he studied science.

As much as he looked to the skies to understand them, he looked far more to the scriptures.

Fascinated with the Bible through the course of his life, and that moves us now as a transition into the second part of the psalm, because as beautiful as the skies are, and as much as they generally reveal that there's a

God who has eternal power, look with verse 7 to 11, look with David and see.

Do you love the Bible like Isaac Newton did? Do you love it from the depths of your heart the way

David did? The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the

Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the

Lord are true and righteous altogether. Notice the repetition of of the

Lord. I mentioned earlier that's Yahweh, that's the covenant name of God. Now we're specifically looking to the

God who gives us Scripture, the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord. Whose book is this?

This is God's book. 2nd Timothy 316, all Scripture is

God -breathed, that's breathed out by God. It's Theanusta. God has breathed the very words onto the pages of this book that we have.

2nd Peter 120, no Scripture is of any private interpretation, but prophets were carried along by the

Holy Spirit. That's a paraphrase, close to that. We're told by Jesus in John 10 35, the

Scriptures cannot be broken. These are the very words of God.

When Peter is writing about the Apostle Paul at the end of 2nd Peter, he says that people twist the words of Paul, and Paul writes things that are hard to understand.

He says they twist his words just as they do the other Scriptures. Point being,

Peter understood that Paul was writing Scripture, and all Scripture is

God -breathed. Guys, verses 7 to 9 applies equally to the New Testament as it does to the

Old. The Scripture is perfect. Notice in this kind of poem here, verses 7 and 9, it always begins with the title, and then it gives a description, and then it gives the effect.

So what is the title of the Word of God? What you have in your hands, the Bible, what is the title of?

This is called the law. This is called the testimony, the precepts, the commandment, the fear.

The Bible is called the fear, the rules. This is

God's Word to us. And what is the description of this book?

These written revelations that come to us through the prophets, they're described as perfect, and sure, and right, and pure, clean, true.

That's the Bible. Sometimes God just wants us to pause and to look at His Word and delight in what it is, what

He has given us. And so what is the effect on us? Six things. It revives the soul, it makes wise the simple, it rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever, and makes righteous altogether.

As it is righteous, it makes us righteous. These are the effects of the

Word of God. John MacArthur is just a great truth warrior.

He points out that when it says, making wise the simple, the Hebrew word, notice in verse 7, making wise the simple, the

Hebrew word for simple there has the root of an open door.

A simple person is an open door. An open door doesn't discriminate.

Whatever comes to that opening goes through that opening, because it's open. It's an open door.

And John MacArthur says, having an open mind is one step away from being a moron.

Okay, MacArthur, what do you mean by that? Well listen, we are to have our mind shaped not to be simple, but to make a judgment.

And MacArthur says, there comes a time you have to render a judgment. Render a judgment.

The simple regard all ideas alike. They don't discriminate between truth and error.

Everything is an open door. Their mind is open. And the world loves this mantra, have an open mind.

But the Word of God makes wise the open door. It makes wise the simple.

It helps you to sort out the difference between truth that should be allowed into the doors of your heart and life, and the lies that are actually coming from the enemy.

Only the Word of God is able to do this. MacArthur has another quote similar to that one.

He says, no one becomes a liberal by reading the

Bible. You have to go to school for that. Those who come to the

Scriptures are taught and trained by the Scriptures. Those who go to learning outside of the

Scripture and the philosophies of men can be led astray. It's not that we can't learn, but that the

Bible must be our bedrock, making wise the simple. And this is the point here.

Verses 7 to 9, the Word of God is sure and true and powerful. It is to be believed in all things.

And so now we move into verses 10 to 12, and this is the thrust of what I want to say today. Not that all of it wasn't important, but moving in right here, if you've been starting to zone out for a minute, if you've been snoozing, wake up, hear the

Word of God. It says, more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, the drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover, by them your servant is warned, in keeping them there is great reward.

Here's my question for you. What would you give in exchange for the

Word? In other words, if you were offered all the gold in Fort Knox, but you were never again allowed to open the

Bible, and your memory bank of all the scripture that you've learned were erased, and the fragmentary writings that you have in your notebooks are suddenly blank, would you give the scripture for all the gold in Fort Knox?

Would you do it? Be honest with yourself. More to be desired than gold, even much fine gold.

How much do you value and treasure? You can determine that by what you would trade it for, and if you wouldn't give it for all the gold, would you give it for your

TV show that takes up the time where you could be reading the Bible? Another question, how willing are you to go to war for the truth of God's Word?

You can tell how much you value something by your willingness to war for it.

Abraham valued Lot, and when Lot was captured by an enemy, he was willing to go to war for his nephew, because he loved his nephew.

Would you go to war for the Word of God? Do you realize that every war that is fought is a truth war at its root?

It's the the Nazism of Hitler that motivated his aggression, and World War II was the the affront against that lie.

Every physical war, but every war that you're engaged in, every battle that you're a part of, at the root there is a question of truth, and if you love

God's Word, the question is, do you love it enough to go to war for it?

We stand on the shoulders of giants, and this Bible that you hold this morning, that's called true and pure and clean and right and perfect, and that changes you and revives you and does all these things for you, this was passed on to us by people who were willing to war for it.

When John Knox was told he must not turn the Bible into English, and that it would be given to the common farmer,

Knox said that the average boy farming in his field will know more of this book than the

Pope, and by the time he translated it and distributed it across England, it was true.

The Word of God came to their hands, but he paid the price in his own blood, as did the

French Huguenots and the Lollards and Brother Yun in China, and that Bible smuggler who takes the

Bible across the border, gaining access through Iraq because of that war that happened, going into Pakistan and making it through the checkpoints because he's got them hidden in barrels, and he knows if he's caught, he dies, but he says,

I'm at war for this book, and this book has come to us through war.

Every culture that has rejected God has made war against this book. When Stalin and his forces, after helping

America and the British defeat Hitler, they became the aggressors, and even in the midst of that war, we were kind of just allies because we had a common enemy, but Stalin's communism was evil, and when my grandfather was taken captive, you know they destroyed every captive's

Bibles? The only way Paul Clewer had his Bible with him is he hid it in a canteen.

He was willing to risk his life not to lose his Bible because that was worth more to him than water.

How many of us take for granted what's been given to us, but in this culture, the war is not to destroy the pages.

They can't do that anymore. Too many in print, they're on our phones, they're on the internet, you can't get rid of the written

Bible, but you can discredit it, and the point of attack right now seems to be the perspicuity of Scripture, which means the clarity of Scripture, and so you'll see people saying, yes, you can have that interpretation of the

Bible, that's true for you, but I read it differently. The Bible is not clear enough to say what it means to say, you bring your own private interpretation to the

Bible, and whatever you see there is true for you. Do you see, brothers and sisters, this is yet another subtle attack on the

Word of God. If God is able to speak, and that's the issue today, there is a

God, everybody knows that because he's created, but the

God who is has spoken. He has not left us here as orphans, he's spoken, and the

God who speaks is able to speak clearly. Sometimes I'm not able to speak clearly. I get my words confused,

I mispronounce things, I mess up, God never lisps,

God never stammers, God never fails to communicate what he has to say to us.

It is to be valued as gold, that's the first thing. Trade nothing for it, make war to defend it, it is more valuable than gold.

This book, he's even able to protect it. Through translation, that we can have it in English and yet can communicate the very

Word of God. The next thing, it's sweeter also than honey, sweeter than honey.

Greg Laurie says this, do you want to be a happy person? Ready for a real simple way to be happy?

Read your Bible. He says, do you want to be an even happier person? Read the

Bible and do what it says. And I would add, don't do what it tells you not to do. I like that kind of preaching, right?

Sometimes I need to just be a little more simple. And Luke 11 28 says, happy are those who hear the

Word of the Lord and keep it. Mercurius, blessed, happy, joyful, not just circumstantially happy, but at the depths of the heart of who you are.

It comes from this book, sweeter than honey, sweeter to the taste. Do you savor the

Word of God? Do you love the time that you have reading God's Word? Sweeter than the drippings of the honeycomb.

And then third, verse 11, moreover by them is your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward.

So it's infinitely valuable, it's delightful, incomparably delightful, but it's also eternally consequential.

The Word of God warns us, read the prophets, that there is judgment for sin, but there is life through repentance and faith.

2nd Timothy 3 15, Paul, speaking to Timothy, reminds him how from infancy you have heard the scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation.

It's by the scripture that we hear the truth of the gospel, that we're able to believe.

So the warning is given that if we don't repent we die in our sins, but the good news of the gospel is communicated through scripture.

It's amazing to me that so many people want to be scriptural, I mean want to be Christian without being scriptural.

They want to say they're Christians, but they're ready to abandon this book as some archaic and outdated thing that they no longer need.

Don't you realize, without this there is no foundation upon which to stand. This is the foundation.

Our epistemology, our way of knowing, is nothing but the Bible. We have no way of knowing who

Jesus is, what he's done, what he said, what he accomplished, why he accomplished it, what is the meaning of his death.

Are we just supposed to make that up, or do we go by the scripture that God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, that in him we would become the righteousness of God.

We only know that because the scripture tells us why he died. He died as an atonement for sins, that those who would repent of sin and believe in him would have eternal life.

We only know this through this book. This is the foundation, and the eternal consequence is eternal death or eternal life.

That's what the book says, John chapter 3 verses 19 to 21. Either you believe and have life, or you don't and you die in your sin.

That's not my words, that's not narrow and bigoted, that's God's Word. Eternally consequential things we're dealing with here this morning.

The Word of God. So finally, the last three verses now take the general revelation and the specific revelation of the

Bible, and it points it inward. How do you receive it? Who can discern his errors?

Declare me innocent from hidden faults. In Leviticus 4 .35, the Israelite, like David here, he would have a way of making atonement.

He would go to the priest who would make atonement for his hidden faults, where he made mistakes and he unwillingly, or against his heart of hearts, sinned.

But then there was something called a sin with a high hand, a presumptuous sin. Without any repentance, just brazenly an affront to God.

Leviticus 15 .22 to 31. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.

Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.

Verse 14, we close with this. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight,

O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. David points it right down into the heart.

When I was a child, probably about eight years old, I got a little black Bible. It's my first Bible from my parents.

And they wrote in it, let this book be your guide through life. And I looked at that this week in my office and then

I have a series of Bibles. As I grew up, I just kept getting different Bibles. You kind of wear out one. Different seasons of life, you have a different Bible for each one.

And I look back at those Bibles and I said, this has been the consistent treasure of my life.

This has been it. Without this, I was nothing. And that little prayer that my parents prayed over me, by writing those words in the scripture, let this book be your guide through life, that was the blessing of my life.

Greatest thing they ever gave me. Parents, teach your children the scriptures.

Kids, adults, let this book be our guide through life. Value it more than you value anything.

Taste how savory it is. Enjoy it. Delight in it. Don't do it like because you have to check a box, but let it be the honey from the honeycomb.

And recognize the eternal consequence of what we have here written in scripture. Let's pray. So Father, what can we say,

Lord? Thank you that you haven't left us here as orphans, but you speak to us.

Father, you speak through creation. I pray that we would be able to go outside and look at the stars tonight.

Look at the Sun as it runs its course throughout the day. And remember that you are God. There's none like you.

And I pray that we would open the scriptures and treasure every word that you have spoken to us. That we would taste and see that you are good.

That we would magnify you from our hearts. And I pray that all of us here this morning would recognize the eternal consequence of heeding your word.

It's life or death. I pray that we would choose life that we might live.

Every person here turning their faith to Jesus Christ for salvation.

We thank you for what you're doing in this place. And if there's any that are not born again at this time, Lord, we pray they would call on the name of Jesus for salvation according to your word, according to the scriptures.