Well may the Lord help you in hearing friends and me in speaking. We would direct your attention to Psalm 119 verse 105. Psalm 119 verse 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. This indeed is a good word for us to consider at the beginning of a new year. And I do really wonder, friends, how much I personally, and I'm sure you could join with me in this, really value the Word of God. I wish I valued it more. This wonderful book that we have, inspired of God from Genesis to the end of Revelation. And friends, you know, I felt this year to have a resolution. Now, I don't know whether you young friends Had a New Year's resolution or not, but I felt to have one this year. And it was based on Cowper's hymn 958, which is over a closer walk with God. A calm and heavenly frame, a light And this is the light that we have here, the light unto my path, a light that shines upon the road that leads me to the Lamb. But that light that comes from the closer walk with God. And it was my prayer that the Lord would help me to walk closer with Him. Now, I don't know what resolutions you may have made, But they do say that most people break their New Year's resolutions by the middle of January. And such is the fallen nature of man that we declare we're going to do something. And of course, a resolution means we've resolved to do something or we've resolved to not to stop doing something, whichever it is. But we fail. we fail in those resolutions because we are lost, fallen men, women and children. But what a wonderful thing it is if it is our prayerful desire in 2026 to have God's Word to be a lamp and a light unto us in our pathway. Now the wonderful thing is this, there's no age constraint on this. The Word doesn't say you've got to be at least 15, you've got to be at least an adolescent. The Word doesn't say at 95 that you're too old. to be in it. And I believe it's like this friends, each and every one of us here. As helped of the Lord, maybe we should bring this in then ourselves as our resolution to know the lamp and the light in our path in 2026. None of us know what will happen on February the 1st, let alone December the 31st. But if we know that there is one that goes before us, what a help that will be. I often think of the words, the poem, written by Minnie Haskins, who lived at Cobra. who was quoted by King George VI in December 1939 in his Christmas Day message to the nation, which was regarding the year ahead. I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, that is the opening of the year, Give me a light. This is our text friends, the light. Give me a light that I may walk safely into the unknown way. And he said, and he answered, and he said, put your hand into the hand of God. As you enter the darkness, it's a darkness the way ahead. As I said, we don't know February the 1st, let alone December the 31st. Put your hand into the hand of God and that will be better to you than a known way. And so it goes on. My friends, what a word for us this evening, that by prayer, We put our case, our life, our circumstance, our soul into the hand of God. My times are in thy hand, O Lord. Yes, I leave them there. I cast them there. Friends, family, and soul, entirely to thy care. May we each be helped to do so. Psalm 119 is a fascinating psalm. It is an acrostic psalm, one that works with the Hebrew alphabet. 22 characters. Each of the 22 characters are broken down into eight verses. Hence it comes out at 176 verses, the longest chapter in the Bible. It is longer than 30 books in the Bible. Yes, it's a remarkable chapter. And yet, in God's wisdom, we do not know who penned this psalm. There are many that speak of David. There are many that speak of other psalmists. And we know Asaph wrote many as well. And some are attributed to Moses. But we know not. It's hidden from us. But as we do know, the writer very much speaks of the law and the testimonies and the precepts, the statutes, the commandments and judgments of God. But it is a God-honoring psalm in this sense that you will find As it were, God is covered in virtually every single verse. I think I read somewhere, apart from three verses, in the whole of the psalm. So it is a remarkable psalm. And it is written in many ways in the personal, I, I, in the first person. I don't know if you just noticed that in the verses we read. Verse 106, I have sworn, I will perform it. I am afflicted, except I beseech thee. And so on and so on, personal, personal. And in the end, our religion has to be a personal religion. Though it is right that we worship collectively and that we bear one another's burdens. And friends, you know that is where we watch for others and their pathway and the light and the lamps that they have and that we bear them in mind. But don't forget, I also read regarding the virgins. Now I'm sure in their hearts the five wise virgins would have loved to have given of their oil to the foolish virgins, but it wasn't enough. May we each seek personally. 365 times I am told the word I or some personal phrase comes into these 176 verses. That's remarkable. You think of that personally. How is the case with you and me personally, friends? We need to be sure before our God, don't we? Whilst if we have And we hope we've each got that real religion. If we have, then we will have a care for others as well. But, you know, this psalm, I have quite a love to this psalm. Many years ago, and it is many years ago, when I was 12, I spoke to my dad and I said, Dad, I'm going to read Psalm 119. He said, well, go on, my boy, you read it and you tell me what you think of it afterwards. Well, I read it. I was confused. I was muddled. One text in the whole of that psalm, I felt I can see some sense in that as a 12 year old. And that was the text that we've got tonight. that God's word would light up the pathway ahead. I could see that as a 12 year old. But all these precepts and these judgments and all these testimonies, I couldn't make, as we might use the expression, head nor tail of it. What did it all mean? And I said to my dad, there's only one verse that I think I can understand at all. And I remember him saying this, my son, I'm so pleased that you understand one verse. Isn't that a great favour? But you see, it's not an easy song for young people necessarily. But the point is this, it's full of the way that we must conduct our life to follow God's commands. His commandments, which means we must be obedient. To follow the precepts, which are instructions. A precept is an instruction from someone who is senior to us, as to those that are underneath that senior person. Instructions from God to us each as we're underneath His control. Statutes. Now they're something that are permanent. They're engraved. And they're unchangeable, as the expression would be, set in tablets of stone. Where does that come from? That expression comes from the commandments of God, the 10 commands. And then we think of the law, what God requires us to keep, those 10 commandments. We think of judgments, decisions that God has made as a heavenly judge to ensure that our behavior is as it should be to his high standard. So none of these things as a young lad did I understand. We do hope that we know a little of them, so it's not an easy time. But friends, this verse, this verse, let's come to it. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. The word, what does it mean by the word? Thy word, your word, God's word it means. Yes, it is the word of God. Precious Bible says to him, what a treasure. Does the Word of God afford? And as I started our little sermon by saying, friends, I wish I valued it more. All I want for life or pleasure, food and medicine, shield and sword is revealed in Jehovah's sacred word. You see this, shall I envy then the miser doting on his golden store? Sure I am or should be wiser. I am rich because I have the word of God. The hymn writer means he is poor. Having Jesus, I have an immortal store. But we have Jesus through his word. This is the word of God. This glorious book. that sits before us. You know, I dug out of the young people's hymnal a hymn. And it so touched me this, how precious is the book divine by inspiration given, bright as a lamp, its doctrines shine to guide the soul to heaven. And friends, 2026 is another 365 day steps towards heaven for each of us. if we're on the path to heaven. And I hope and trust that we each are. And if we don't know it today, may we plead with the Lord that we know it tomorrow. Because if not, it's 365 day steps nearer to hell. Don't forget the five foolish virgins. There was not time to get the oil. When I was at school, and again, many years ago, We used to sing, give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning, burning till the break of day, till the morning would break. And friends. What a prayer that is for the new year, to have oil in our lamps, that they are aglow with a love to the Lord Jesus Christ, aglow with, as it were, the solemn realization of our sins and our shortcomings before a holy God. But they're aglow, aglow. Yes, I feel, friends, we get very, we struggle with our faith, don't we sometimes? And there is a hymn that says this, it speaks of it, though dimmed, yes, it is not completely faded away. Well, friends, the lamp. Now I understand in eastern lands the cities were often dark, there were not lamps in the streets as of course we know it today and they would have a candle and you may notice if you've got a margin in your Bible that the word lamp is candle in the margin it's closely related to that word they would have a candle which was basically in olive oil in a little lamp or a little candle in a jar which they would carry in front of them. And that did not give a lot of light, but it gave enough that they could watch their footsteps so they didn't walk into the sewers or they would break a leg. And so there was sufficient light from that source. Now, but they had to have oil. They had to have oil. Friends, we need oil. We need to pray for oil and we need to continue to pray and prayer itself is oil for this new year. And so they would hold that in front of them and it would literally be a lamp unto their feet. It would only really shine on their feet in front of them. And so that's what we need in all the steps that we have. One of the hymns says, order my footsteps by thy word, the word of God. You know, if we don't know what to do in a matter. The word of God has got the answer. And it really has, you know, I can remember and it just comes back to mind that I was so I had been reading of these words and it so struck me in my mind, prepare these stuff for removing. And I went to a chapel and I thought, well, perhaps that ought to be my text. And I thought, well, how do you preach from those words? Well, in the end, I didn't preach from them, but I mentioned them. And there was a dear soul who wanted to know whether they should put their house on the market. She'd been begging of the Lord that the minister would say something quite remarkable. And she'd think, well, perhaps I should move.

Prepare these stuff for removing. You see, friends, it was a word. It was a word from the Lord. It was a light upon her path. And so the Lord, the word then is a lamp. unto my feet the word of God when he applies his word whether it was in that case literally in direction in this life or a word to our soul to give us a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ I love thee well my child thou art all fair my love there is no spot in thee any such word that the Lord gives us and friends I want to be really careful in this But I have never forgotten my dad saying to me once that the Lord spoke to him in the night in a word and then he looked it up and it wasn't exactly as it was in scripture. And the enemy says, see, you didn't get that because that didn't come from scripture. But he proved it and he walked it out. And he said, although it wasn't exactly as the Bible had recorded it, nonetheless, he saw that it was a word from the Lord because he proved it in his walk. in due course.

So friends, the Lord speaks through his word in that way, his word, his words. But it is the word of God that we must use as our guide through life, our guide through every single day. This wonderful guidebook that we have. Friends, you know, I tell you, It'll get you to heaven. You live to this book. You can't turn on Google Maps to get you to heaven, friends. I'm going to be clear in this modern day stuff that we've got. It's brilliant, isn't it? It tells me it's 40 minutes to get to Hastings Chapel. But you know this, that in God's time, we do not know the times, but we leave it with him. That's the light.

In a way, the darkness is the unknown path, as I referred to earlier. But in the light of the gospel, we look to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a light he is. He's a light himself. We read of that. I think we read of it in two places. The first one that came to me was in Luke 2, verse 32, where we read the words of Simeon, the man who waited for the consolation of Israel. And he says this, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. Not there speaking just of the nation Israel, but of course the spiritual Israel. A light to lighten the Gentiles. And then we read in the Gospel according to John in the first chapter that there was a man sent from God whose name was John the Baptist. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light with a capital L. The Lord Jesus Christ himself to bear witness of the light. that all men, or God in heaven really that refers to, that all men through him might believe. He wasn't that light, says the next verse, but he was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which light if every man that cometh into the world, every man that cometh to know the Lord Jesus Christ in a saving way. the capital L, the light, the candle, shall we say.

Friends, do you know the light? It lights up your life in those dark places. That light is always, as it were, on. Though you don't always see it and though you don't always feel it, we get into those dark places, but the light is always on. Ah, friends, What a thought, what a thought that is for us this evening. That light is always on. But one of the things I want to encourage you and myself in tonight is this, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 5 verse 39, just three words really, search the scriptures. They are the light. our path they have all the answers he goes on to say for in them you think he have eternal life and they and they are they which testify of me if we could speak of him it is through the scriptures and the application of them to our heart Oh friends what thoughts these are the light the candle thy word is a lamp unto my feet but we also need a light on the path because the path is a slippery path the path can be we can wander into

a wayward path a dark path a hidden path an unknown path in a way the paths of sin you see we can wander there and don't forget we got a great enemy and he's darkness and he wants us to walk in a dark place where you know we can't see things very well. As I was driving through Cranbrook on the way to come here there was a bit of fog really and I was thinking really you couldn't see very well cars that were parked on the left-hand side of the road and I thought this is quite dark. And what you wanted to do was to try to put your lights up. But when you put your headlamps up, then with the fog, it was, excuse me, it was, it was, it was not clear either. So they were better being down. Now we think about this spiritually for a moment. You've got an enemy, you've got two enemies, and they both want to fog things up so that you don't clearly see the light in your pathway. They want to make things more difficult for you. Yes, this enemy. But let me say, friends, that what a blessing it is that we can pray to the Lord that he would clearly show us the way and that he would keep us from wandering into Bypath Meadow and wandering into those places that we ought not to be in. A prayer to be kept. Yes. Oh, that thou wouldst bless me indeed, said Jabez, and enlarge my coast. Yes. And you see that and keep me from evil, that it may not grieve thee. That is a desire to walk closer to God. That is a good resolution, friends. Such a prayer. And so it would be for you and I. But you know, it's a wonderful thing we can pray for this light. The Psalmist in Psalm 43 verse 3 says this, Oh send out thy light and thy truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Yes, that I will go to the place of worship. And I do love Psalm 18 and it's rather remarkable. Verse 28 says this, thou wilt light my candle. If you've got some darkness in your pathway, if you feel dark in your soul, go home friends and pray to the Lord that he would light your candle. For thou wilt light my candle, the Lord my God. will enlighten my darkness. Psalm 18 verse 28. I've walked in the following verse today, friends. This following verse was on one of those tear off calendars that I've got. And that was a text for thee. I have run through a troop. By my God have I leapt over a wall, I can't tell you, but there's been a wall of impossibility in my life and today the Lord has granted me to leap over it. Ah, friends, that strengthens your little faith. That makes you feel this light, this candle, and it shines within you. Friends, I believe I can honestly say, I couldn't think about the text as I drove down here tonight. All I could do was to try, was to praise the Lord. It's a good place to be and we're thankful. But I know there will be those of you that can't be there tonight, but maybe you'll be there tomorrow. Ah, a light to lighten the darkness. Yes. Well, I feel this, friends, I feel that Much of this is brought through with prayer, isn't it? A light unto my path. I think it's in a way summed up quite well in Proverbs 6 as well, verse 23, where it speaks a bit earlier in verse 20, My son, keep thy father's commandment, forsake not the law of thy mother. And it says this, that by keeping those laws, that's coming back to the laws and the precepts and the statutes, but by keeping those things and praying to be kept by them, it says this, bind them continually upon thine heart, tie them about thy neck. And it goes on to say, this, that when thou goest it shall lead thee, when thou sleepest it shall keep thee, and when thou wakest it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the ways of life. Oh, it covers really those words that we've got before us this evening. But we have, I think it's hymn 97, which says this. This is William Cowper again. The spirit breathes upon the word. and brings the truth to sight. Precepts and promises afford a sanctifying light, a light in our soul to show that we are set apart. And it goes on to say, the hand that gave it, this light that is, the hand that gave it still supplies the gracious light and heat. Its truths upon the nations rise, they rise but never set. The light that is upon the pathway. And when we're in a deep place. Now, friends, and maybe some of you, that are really are in the deep valleys. You may be walking in some difficult areas. You may have those great trials before you. Well, friends, the word applies for you as well as for those that perhaps, as I feel tonight, to be praising my God and you can't get there perhaps in your dark place. But the word of God is still a lamp. It's still a light. Oh, how many in this word have had to prove the dark places! Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God? For I shall yet praise him for his help and the health of his countenance. And so it is this great God who we would serve and who we would, well, desire to walk closely to. Thy Word, the Word of God. And friends, you know, it's been solemn to me to ponder and Revelation 22 says, if any man should take away Verse 19, from the words of the book of this prophecy, God should take away his part out of the book of life. And any man that heareth the words, every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. Oh, to be kept steadfast in these things should be a continual prayer. Thy word. And, you know, the Lord speaks. His word to us can be through circumstances as well. It can be through things that prevail in our life and in our experiences, and there's a voice of God in it. There may be no actual words, but we can see the hand of God, that it is He that is working, that it is not us. and that he is doing those things for us. Oh, may we. You know, I so often quote that verse, friends, but I feel we need it. They won't come to me, but I know where it is. It should come to me. But whoso is wise. You see, if we're given wisdom, then there is light upon God's word. Whoso is wise and will observe these things. Even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Those things that work out for us in our lives, that the voice of God is in them. But you see this. May we prove it. 2026, the unknown way, the uncertainties here and in all the churches. May we pray for God's blessing that the light will not go out, but rather the light will, as it were, be firmly fixed and established. You know, we've got a bulb in our kitchen at the moment. We need to do something about it. But it flickers. It flickers. And I pondered that. And to the child of God, the light through the word of God flickers. In other words, it's not always steadfast and strong as we see it, but it always is steadfast and strong. It's just that we don't observe that. And we need to be given wisdom and to pray for wisdom, to observe, to notice, and to record those things. Well friends, I've spoken enough. May the Lord bless his own word, but may he help you and me to resolve through prayer and exercise and desire to the Lord for 2026 to walk closer with him and to prove that his word is a lamp unto our feet as we have in the past, but in this uncertain future, His word a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Amen. you're welcome to stay behind after service there are some light refreshments in the back room our closing hymn is again from hymns for worship hymn 151 to the tune 890 In heavenly love abiding, no change my heart shall fear, and safe is such confining, for nothing changes here. The storm may roar without me, my heart may low be laid, but God is round about me, and can I be dismayed? Hymn 151. In him, beloved, I did, a change my heart shall give. And safe is such a finding, For nothing changes here. That storm may roll without me, My heart ache very late, But God is firm about me, can I be dismayed. Wherever he may guide me, no one shall turn me My shepherd is beside me, and nothing can I lack. His wisdom never waketh, his sight is never dim. He knows the way I take him, and I will walk with him. Dream postures are before me, Which yet I have not seen. Bright skies will soon be a-me, Where dark the clouds have been. My hope I cannot measure, My path to life is free. My Saviour has my treasure, And He will walk with me.

Dear Lord, do take us each home in peace and safety after that time of fellowship. O Lord, do bless thine own word, we pray, and remember us each for good. Do continue to bless this church and people and congregation, we pray, and help their dear pastor, we plead. Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.