Opening the Letter

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday evening service, September 13, 2026 I, II & III John · Series Introduction · 1 John 1:1 · 1 John 2:19 · 1 John 1:4 · 1 John 5:13 · 1 John 5:11-12

Watch this lesson on video (47:47)

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We are going to start a new series tonight, and here is the way I have it laid out - the way I hope it works. Every other Sunday night we will do a lesson from 1, 2 and 3 John, and on a Sunday night we will kind of skim the surface. Then the next time I preach on a Wednesday we will go a little bit DEEPER . . . the first layer of the onion on Sunday, the second layer of the onion on Wednesday. And the Sunday nights in between we will do the Route 66 thing . . . I have got eighteen or so lessons prepared for this, and that may change a little as we go along.

Now, 1, 2 and 3 John - is it a prophecy? Is it just a book? Or is it a letter? It turns out it is a LETTER . . . and it is a letter that has been addressed to US - we will touch on that directly.

There are some names we will run across tonight. Ephesus - you remember that was the city where John pastored as he got older . . . and the seven churches of Asia were the churches in that part of the country. Smyrna - that was the one church in Revelation chapter 2 that had NOTHING wrong with it . . . and two men we have probably not run across before. One is named Polycarp - he was one of the preachers at Smyrna, and he learned from the apostle John firsthand. The other was Irenaeus - a young preacher in one of those churches who learned from Polycarp. Hang on to those names, because the reason I am going through them will show up in just a moment.

A Letter Has Come to This Church

Let us use our imagination for a minute. I said these three books are actually letters - so suppose a letter showed up in the church mailbox this week . . . it was hand-written . . . there was no return address on it, and the reason there was no return address is that after reading the first line or two, it would be obvious who had written it. “Oh - I recognize that, that is Brother So-and-so’s writing. That is what Brother So-and-so always talked about and always said.”

Now suppose the man who wrote that letter was literally the LAST living person on earth who had personally walked with Jesus Christ before the cross. This same John is the John in the Gospel of John who leaned on the breast of Jesus at the supper - he was the John who stood at the cross - he was the John who ran to the empty tomb . . . and he was the John who ate the broiled fish with Jesus after Jesus had come up out of the grave.

Well, that is what 1 John is. It is not a textbook - it is literally a LETTER . . . it was written by the last eyewitness of the “person Jesus” there was, to the churches he pastored in the country around Ephesus. And one of the reasons it was written - was that something had gone WRONG in those churches. Some of the members - members that the church TRUSTED - had been overcome with a particular error . . . and we are going to touch on that here in a minute.

So this evening I am not going to go line by line and verse by verse and actually preach the letter. I am just going to hand you a little bit of information - who wrote it, why it was written, and how he put the letter together . . . the way it is structured. Because there is a HUGE difference between reading a letter that was written to somebody else and reading a letter that was written to us. I could read a letter that was written to Brother Ken . . . but if I read a letter that was written to ME, there is a significant difference in how I am going to look at what is in it - and that is the idea here.

Now I want to point out that this letter was written to the churches in the days of John - but by extension it was also written to THIS local church, here, today . . . if we find a book in the Bible that was addressed to a church in New Testament times, we can add the address of Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church to that same letter . . . literally.

So here is the point of this evening’s lesson, and this is the first time: This letter is addressed to us. It is addressed to Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church.

Who Wrote It - the Last Man Who Touched Him

I have already said the man who wrote it was the last person alive who had touched the flesh of Jesus Christ. Now this is where some of the details start to matter, and when I explain the error that was found in these churches, you will be able to connect the dots. Notice 1 John chapter 1, verse 1.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;” - 1 John 1:1 (KJV)

We have HEARD . . . we have SEEN with our eyes . . . and our hands have HANDLED. We have actually put our hands on Jesus Christ. Now that is not written just to sound nice and give comfort . . . if you look at it, it is a whole lot like a witness taking the stand in a courtroom - “this is what I saw FIRSTHAND,” is what John is saying.

And by the time this letter got written, the number of people left alive on the earth who could say that - I have seen Him with my eyes, I have touched Him with my hands, I have heard Him with these ears - had been narrowed down to ONE man. John was the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve, and he was the last one of the twelve still living . . . he was an old man, and he was pastoring - taking care of the churches in the country around Ephesus.

Now here is one of the ways we know that, and we are going to look at a little bit of history. This is history - it is not written to us in the Bible - but according to history it goes like this. I mentioned a couple of odd names at the beginning . . . Polycarp - who in the world would be named Polycarp? Well, this was a pastor the apostle John taught personally, and he was the pastor of the church at Smyrna - the very same church that got the letter in Revelation chapter 2 with not one single word of rebuke in it. Now the oldest records - and when I say records, I mean letters that were written a long time ago, at that particular point in time, and actually survived - one letter of Polycarp’s has survived all the way down to us, and in it he quotes 1 John.

And according to history, at about eighty-six years old they stood that old preacher up in a stadium full of people and ordered him to curse Christ. Polycarp is reported to have said - “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” And right after he said that . . . they lit the fire and burned him alive.

Now Revelation chapter 2 - we are not going to go there tonight - but verse 10 is where Jesus tells the church at Smyrna to be faithful unto death. And one of the pastors of Smyrna was a man who actually WAS faithful unto death - he did it.

Then there was the other man, Irenaeus. He did not know the apostle John himself - but he was taught by Polycarp, and he later wrote, in letters that have survived, that he could still remember right where Polycarp sat when they were in church together . . . he remembered how Polycarp talked about the apostle John, and how he would tell about the conversations he had had with him. And he says plainly, in the letters that have survived, that John the disciple of the Lord had written this letter at Ephesus.

So one man knew John - that is Polycarp . . . the next man, Irenaeus, knew the man that knew the apostle John. You see how this information passed straight from John to a man who knew him, to a man who knew that man.

Now I realize history is not SCRIPTURE . . . what we have just gone over is some letters that survived, and they are not the Bible at all - and we do not build any kind of doctrine on Polycarp or Irenaeus, because the Bible proves itself. But what we have here is a word found OUTSIDE the Bible - agreeing with what the Bible has already said.

So - when we open up this letter - we are reading something the last apostle wrote – and it is not the voice of a stranger . . . it is the voice of one of our fathers in the faith. And I think we would all agree that the apostle John earned the right to correct us - and he did, in these three books, as we will see - and he corrected us with a great amount of tenderness, because he loved us.

Now think about this . . . if the last man alive who had touched Jesus sat down to write one last letter - how CAREFULLY would we read that letter if it arrived in our mailbox?

Why It Was Written - Something Got In

Let us touch on why John wrote it. The letter never names a city . . . and there is a reason for that - it was intended to be passed from one church to another. You remember there were seven churches in Asia, and these churches met in HOUSES. I have actually pastored a church once that did not have a church building. We met in one member’s house one Sunday and a different member’s house the next Sunday . . . we just kind of went around that way - and that is the way these churches operated at that time. Ordinary, everyday people were the members, and they had been saved and brought into the fold ten, twenty, thirty years after the crucifixion . . . and according to history they were living in a world totally saturated with idol gods. If you walked three miles to work, or rode a donkey to work, it would be impossible not to pass a shrine or a temple to some idol.

And one of the problems in these churches was that they were beginning to be POISONED. Now here is the thing - what was poisoning them was not coming from the outside in . . . some of the members of these early churches were in error, and they were spreading poison from WITHIN. Notice 1 John 2:19.

“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest (shown up for who and what they were) that they were not all of us.” - 1 John 2:19 (KJV)

According to history, certain teachers had risen up from the membership of these early churches, and they claimed to have a HIGHER knowledge of God than the ordinary church member out in the pew. Do you think that is still sort of common? You do not have to look very far to find somebody who claims to be a preacher and has raised himself up - SELF-elevated - above the congregation . . . well, that was beginning to happen in that day. They claimed to be part of a secret inner circle, and they claimed to have knowledge that those in the pew had been denied.

And when they walked out - when they left the church - that is the reference here . . . they went out from us, but they were not of us. And when they left they took members WITH them - there were those who were deceived and believed their lies.

Now one of the things they taught was not something that could be glossed over and ignored . . . it went to the very HEART of what we are as true worshippers. The thinking of that day said that anything physical was dirty - it was down low - and the spirit was elevated high. And their reasoning was, if the things of the flesh are down here and the things of the spirit are up here, then if Jesus was truly divine, truly from heaven, He could not have taken on actual flesh. So they taught that Jesus only SEEMED to have a body . . . the real Christ, they said, never suffered, never bled, and never died.

Can you see the seriousness of that error? If Jesus did not come in the flesh, those people were in the same boat as the Muslims are today - a god with no son, and no savior. If there was no flesh, there was no blood . . . if there was no blood, there was no payment for sin . . . and if there was no payment for sin, there was no SALVATION. You take away the body of Jesus, and you have taken away the cross. Take away the body of Jesus, and you have taken away the settlement of sin - and with it, every single hope that anybody who puts their faith in Jesus Christ has got. You have just taken it all away.

Now go back to the very first verse we read, and after hearing the error that was starting to prosper in these churches, notice the significance of what John says. Our hands have HANDLED . . . our eyes have SEEN . . . our ears have HEARD . . . of the Word of life. John did not come up with some fancy philosophy to answer them - he just gave an eyewitness account of the way it really was. “I was there, people. I saw Him with my eyes” - and you cannot see a spirit. “I touched Him with my hands” - and guess what, you cannot touch a spirit.

Picture that old man in a courtroom. On the one side you have those who say nothing of the flesh can be holy - they are on that side like they are in a court of law - and the apostle John is on the other side. He does not ARGUE with them . . . he simply takes the stand and raises his right hand - “I swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” And every claim these impostors had to a higher knowledge just disappears against the eyewitness of the one man left - who had actually touched what they claimed was only a spirit.

Now there are two verses of Scripture it would do us well to write somewhere in our Bible. You do not have to - but these two verses give us the purpose, the reasoning, behind the writing of this letter. Yes, it was written to the churches in Asia . . . but if it is a letter written to a church in New Testament times, it is a letter that has been written to THIS church.

“And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” - 1 John 1:4 (KJV)

Why did he write it? That your joy may be FULL. And 1 John 5:13 - same song, second verse.

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” - 1 John 5:13 (KJV)

That ye may KNOW something - that it may be SETTLED in your mind and heart that you have eternal life. So the letter was written to fill up our joy, and to help us to know something . . . no fear, no doubt, no guessing, no hoping and wondering all the way to the graveyard whether or not we are going to make it when we finally die and stand before God. Now, if we are not sure whether we have been saved, how is it possible to have very much joy in our life? That is how those two verses are connected.

I have actually heard people who spent the majority of their lives in a New Testament church say, “Well, preacher - I hope I make it. I hope I make it.” Well, 1 John was written to counter that attitude . . . it was written to counter that fear and that doubt. People, we do not have to HOPE we make it. If our hope, our faith, our trust is in Jesus Christ, then there is no doubt - we are saved to the uttermost, and nothing can undo that.

So for the second time, the point of our lesson this evening: This letter is addressed to us. It is addressed to Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church.

How the Letter Is Built - the Lighthouse Staircase

Now I want to take a few minutes and point out how this letter is structured. 1 John does not argue in a straight line the way Paul’s letters do. Paul builds a case like a LAWYER - point one proves this, point two proves this . . . and the proof gets a little more definite every time Paul makes a point. John does not go in a straight line - and he does not go in a complete circle, either. Everything I read as I prepared for this lesson - talks about how John goes in a SPIRAL.

I have mentioned before that it is like a lighthouse. You have a circular staircase inside a lighthouse, and a window on the north side. When you are down at the bottom you look out that north window and you see something. Then you go on up the staircase, and you are still looking out that north window - but you are a little bit higher, you are on the second floor . . . it is the same view, but you can see MORE, because you are higher. That is the way 1 John is put together. He comes back around to three tests, over and over - it is like looking out that north window at three different levels. Every time he goes to a higher floor, he sees things that could not be seen from the floor below.

Now on the surface, if you do not know that, it feels like, “Well, he is kind of going around in circles - did we not already discuss that?” But when a man gets to the very top of that staircase, he sees things from up there - that were simply not visible from the first floor. Keep that in mind when you read through 1 John, because that is exactly the way it is structured.

Let me point out what the three windows are - three windows, three tests - and what they are for. They are there to tell what is REAL from what is COUNTERFEIT . . . bear in mind the error that had been introduced in these churches: Jesus did not really come in the flesh. That is obviously the counterfeit. “Well, I have touched Him - I have seen Him” - that is the real thing. So these tests are designed to separate what is real from what is not.

The first window is OBEDIENCE - do we keep the commandments of Jesus Christ? The second window is LOVE - do we love our fellow brethren? The third window is TRUTH - do I confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh?

And there are three porches, if you will - three landings - and the verses for them are on the handout I gave you. On the first landing the tests EXPOSE what is really there. On the second landing they MANIFEST - they show - what is actually there. And on the third landing the window opens up straight into God Himself. Now this is a picture that will carry through this entire series of lessons. On the first landing, love exposes a liar - did He come in the flesh, or did it only seem that way? On the second landing, love buries the sin of Cain. You remember the sin of Cain? He was jealous of his brother, because his brother was doing it the right way and Cain was convicted in his heart - he just did not have the backbone to do it the right way, and he was jealous and angry at the brother who did. And on the third landing, love opens up the heart of God, and we can see what godly love is really like.

Then you have got 2 John and 3 John, the two little books on the end . . . 2 John is a door we SHUT - we shut the door on error - and 3 John is a door we OPEN - we open the door to what is true.

So as we look out these three windows, there is probably one of them that puts a little bit of dread in our heart. We are not as obedient as we ought to be . . . we do not love the way we know we ought to . . . or, “I know enough truth - I am satisfied with the level I am at. I am going to stay down here on the second floor,” when there are higher floors and better views available.

This Is Not Somebody Else’s Mail

As we bring this to a close, I want to point out that this letter is not somebody else’s mail. It is OUR mail . . . and those two verses - the purpose verses, as we are going to call them - joy made full, and knowing without any doubt at all that we have salvation. Now the tests we are talking about, the windows we are looking out of, are not the destination. They are not the final place we are going to be - they are the PATH we use to get where we ought to be.

You see, John is not writing this letter to make a saved person start doubting his salvation. He is writing it so that normal people, just like you and me, can STOP doubting - and so that those who are counterfeit can be seen for what they really are.

So as we start out, first of all, we need to commit ourselves to the CLIMB . . . there are eighteen lessons, unless I add some more, and we need to commit to climbing those eighteen steps one paragraph, one verse at a time - willing to say, “I am not going to skip any steps. I am not going to skip over something I know in my heart I ought to do.”

Second, it would be good to keep that little handout I gave you. That is our floor plan - the floor plan of the lighthouse, for lack of a better way to put it.

And third, I want to make certain we have settled the question of who this letter has been addressed to. It has not been addressed to some church a long time ago . . . it has been addressed to our specific local New Testament church, TODAY. So for the third time: This letter is addressed to us.

Now if there is somebody here this evening who has never believed on the name of the Son of God . . . if there is someone here who doubts that Jesus actually took on real flesh, shed real blood, and literally rose again with a real body - remember, He ate some fish and a honeycomb, and He said to Thomas, come here, put your finger in these wounds in My hand - then that is something we need to take care of before we ever begin climbing this staircase.

“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” - 1 John 5:11-12 (KJV)

This is the record - the testimony, the sworn word . . . and the day of grace is TODAY. Take the Son - put your faith in Jesus Christ - and then start climbing this staircase, too.

We have been having lessons about a staircase in 2 Peter, and now there is a staircase up this winding lighthouse. And you do not get to the top of a staircase in one giant step . . . one step at a time, people. We do not get to be the kind of Christian we will be later all at ONCE - it takes one step at a time. So, okay . . . I will admit I am less than what I ought to be. I am less than what I could be. But I am going to be one step higher, one step closer to that goal tomorrow. I am still not going to be what I ought to be - but I am going to be closer, and I am going to take another step. And that is a summary of the rest of our Christian lives. One step at a time.

Please consider what you heard.

Scripture Used

1 John 1:1 · 1 John 2:19 · 1 John 1:4 · 1 John 5:13 · 1 John 5:11-12 · Revelation 2:10 (all KJV)

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This lesson opens the I, II & III John series. Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.

The Boundaries of God’s Law

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday morning service, September 13, 2026 God’s Law, Lesson 2 of 4 · A3 D10 · Genesis 3:1-5 · Exodus 20:3, 13-17 · Galatians 3:24-25 · Romans 8:3-4

Watch this lesson on video (47:33)

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This is the second lesson in our little four-lesson series about God’s law. Last Sunday morning we talked about WHO makes the law - and we settled it. God made everything . . . God holds everything together . . . God owns everything - so God has the right to set the terms, and you remember the potter and the clay, and how “we” being the clay do not really get a vote in how God chooses to do things.

Now the word for law in the original language is the Torah - and it means to point or to aim. God’s law is God POINTING us - toward the behavior He expects of us.

So this morning we go past WHO makes the law and on to the next question . . . WHY did God draw a line in the sand at all? What purpose does a fence serve? What purpose does this line God has drawn between right and wrong actually serve? And here is where most people get the cart before the horse - because most folks have this one exactly backwards.

God’s boundary is not a cage . . . it is a guardrail.

The First Lie Ever Told Was About God’s Law

We go back to the Garden of Eden, and we find the first lie that was ever told - and it was a lie Satan told about God’s LAW. The Bible tells us there was one boundary in that garden - one tree - one consequence . . . and God revealed the cost of crossing that line right up front. So we have the boundary, which is God’s expectation - He expects us to stay on this side of the fence. We have the tree, the part inside the fence that has been forbidden. And we have the consequence - what happens if we cross over.

Now when we talk about a fence and a guardrail, that reminds me - if any of you have ever been to Haley and Andy’s house, their house sits right up on a bluff, and they have a fence along the top of that bluff. What do you suppose that fence is for? It is a guardrail . . . it is there to keep the ones on that farm SAFE - so what do you suppose the fence around the Ten Commandments is for? Thou shalt have no other gods before me - thou shalt not kill - thou shalt not steal, and so on. It is not there to hem us in . . . it is there to keep us from getting too close to the edge and falling off. You put a fence around a pasture to keep the cows in - well, why not just let the cows run up and down the road? Because the cows will get hit by the traffic - and if we are not fenced out of improper behavior, we WILL be hurt as well.

So what happened after this lie Satan told? Now notice - he did not really tell a lie about God. He told a lie about God’s law . . . “Oh, that fence is not really important. He did not really mean to put the fence there.”

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” - Genesis 3:1-5 (KJV)

Subtil - that is crafty, sly. He was good at tricking - and what he handed Eve was a partial truth . . . and a partial truth is a complete lie. We get into trouble the same way when we read only part of a verse in the Bible. Read the first half of a verse and it says one thing - read the whole thing and we say, oh, oh . . . NOW I see what he was talking about. So do not stop halfway down. “Ye shall be as gods” - you will be your own god. You can build the fence wherever you want it to be, because you will know good and evil just like God does.

Now notice what the serpent DID - and notice what he did NOT do. He never denied there was a fence - Satan knew good and well there was a boundary, and not one time did he tell Eve that God had no right to build it. What he did was RE-DESCRIBE the boundary . . . he planted a seed in Eve’s mind - “the boundary is in the wrong place.” God had said of every tree in the garden you may freely eat - all of it, every fruit in that garden, every bit of it except one. And Satan turned it around backwards and made it come out as though God was keeping Eve away from EVERY tree. Was the purpose of that boundary to keep Adam and Eve away from all the trees - or was it to keep them away from the one tree that was poison? Bear in mind there was only ONE fence . . . in a whole garden full of freedom.

You go up to Andy and Haley’s house and there are some fences here and there to keep the animals in - but there is one fence along that bluff. Just ONE. When we go up there and visit - Wyatt and Claire and the little ones - they can go anywhere they want on that whole farm . . . but they are told, never go on the other side of that fence. Do not get in between the fence and the bluff. That was the idea with Eve in the Garden of Eden - Satan took the fence around the one forbidden tree and portrayed it as a holding pen - he made it look like a cage.

And he has been doing that same thing ever since. “You mean, preacher, if I start going to church down here I can’t . . .” and then they start listing off the stuff in the Ten Commandments. I can’t have my Jack Daniels if I go down there to church. I can’t slip over and see Sally Sue when my wife is out of town. You get the idea. They look at the Ten Commandments as a CAGE - something that restricts their freedom and pens them in - when the whole time the fence around those ten commandments is there to PROTECT them.

Sarah and Mark had a couple of dogs that would run with the sheep or the goats out in their little field . . . and the dogs got through the fence. Well, what is so bad about that? . . . it was not long before an automobile mashed them flat as a pancake out on the highway. Why? They crossed the FENCE. And what do you think happens to us when we cross the fence? The fence is there for our PROTECTION - not to hem us in, but to protect us . . . you build a fence around the things you LOVE. You build a fence around the things you want to protect.

Mount Nebo is close, and it is not so much Nebo as some other places I have been - but you go up on a real high place like that and look off, and you can see so far down it makes your tummy do a turn. And typically there is a guardrail there . . . a fence. Now we come up to that fence and we can have one of two attitudes. “Ah, I am aggravated - that fence is keeping me from going where I want to go, it will not let me get the full view.” Or, when we get a little older and a little more mature about it, we can look at that fence as a good thing - “Well, of all the stuff Uncle Sam gets into that he ought not to get into, I am glad they built that fence there, because it is keeping me safe.” That kind of fence is the exact same thing we see in the Garden of Eden.

And that brings up a question . . . where in our lives are we standing at a fence which God put there to protect us - and calling it a cage?

Every Boundary Is a Fence Around Something God Does Not Want to Lose

Now back a couple of lessons ago - we went through the Ten Commandments one at a time, and we looked at every one of them through eyes of LOVE. This morning we are going to look at those same commandments from the FENCE side - and here is the one question I want to ask at every single one of them - what is God PROTECTING with this fence?

Because it is not normal for a person to go out in the middle of nowhere and build a fence – but when a person builds a fence, he builds it around something he does not intend to LOSE. The fence around those cows is there because we do not want to lose the cows. I had an electric fence around my yard so I would not lose my dog . . . well, he crossed the fence, and something bad happened. If he had stayed on the right side of that fence he would still be alive.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” - Exodus 20:3 (KJV)

God is protecting us from building our entire lives on top of something that is going to fall apart. If our god is anything other than our Creator, we are placing our whole life on something that is not going to last.

“Thou shalt not kill.” - Exodus 20:13 (KJV)

What is God protecting here? He is protecting our lives - and every family standing beside that life.

“Thou shalt not commit adultery.” - Exodus 20:14 (KJV)

God is protecting marriages . . . and the children caught right in the middle of those marriages.

“Thou shalt not steal.” - Exodus 20:15 (KJV)

God is protecting what men work and sweat to obtain - what a person sacrifices for - what we gain by getting up at four or five in the morning and getting on the road.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” - Exodus 20:16 (KJV)

To bear false witness means to tell something about our neighbor that is not true. And God is protecting the good name of somebody who has not done one thing wrong - “but I don’t like them, so I am going to spread lies.” That fence protects the innocence of other people.

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” - Exodus 20:17 (KJV)

Covet here is GREED. I want what they have so bad I will do whatever it takes to get it - I am going to arrange things so their house becomes my house, and their vehicle becomes my vehicle. His ox and his ass - that is his livestock, his living. Now this last commandment is a little different from the others, because it does not just protect the neighbor . . . it protects you and me. It builds a fence around our OWN heart, and the purpose of that fence is to keep poison OUT . . . it will not keep destruction from coming at us from the outside - it keeps poison from starting on the inside and working its way out.

Now look at these commandments - not a single one of them is God being difficult or God being hard on us. You can go look at the other four and see if you can figure out what God is protecting with them . . . but in every one of them you can picture God standing between us and something that is going to hurt us. The fence around the pasture stands between the cows and the traffic.

Now the boundary we are talking about to protect us - is still a boundary - I get that . . . a guardrail is not a suggestion . . . it is there to keep us from going too far. We are not saying the law is soft or something to be ignored. What we are saying - is that the law - the Ten Commandments - is FOR us.

Good Laws Do Not Make Good People

You have heard it said that good fences make good neighbors. Well, a good fence does not turn your neighbor into a good person. A fence does not make wandering livestock BETTER - it does not change their nature . . . a fence keeps bad livestock from wandering.

And here is what surprises folks the first time they think it through - now do not let this go in one ear and out the other. The Bible tells us that no man is justified by the works of the law. Another way of saying that is, good laws do not produce good people. The reason we NEED good laws is because people are not good to begin with. Dardanelle has laws against stealing, does it not? Most folks in Dardanelle are pretty good folks – but some folks in Dardanelle are still THIEVES. The State of Arkansas has a law against murder. Well then, nobody murders in Arkansas anymore, because that law made everybody in Arkansas good . . . no, that is not the way it works.

So if bad things keep happening even where there are good laws - what does a law DO? If a law cannot make me a better person, what is it FOR? Well, a law can do three things. A law can RESTRAIN - it can make the consequences painful enough so that we think twice about crossing the fence. Everybody knows what barbed wire is . . . what are the barbs for? So that when you try to cross it you feel the pain and change your mind. A law can PUNISH - after the fact, after the damage is already done. And a law can EXPOSE - it can tell us exactly what crossing the line looks like, and it can show us our need for something a good deal bigger than just one more rule to follow.

But a law cannot change a person’s HEART . . . it cannot happen. That is one reason the Bible says by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. A law cannot change our nature. A law can tell us exactly where the boundary is - and it can do nothing at all to make us not WANT to cross that boundary. We can look at the barbs on that wire and decide against it . . . but the law has not changed our want-to. We still think, “I wish I could get over there – but it just is not worth it.”

So once again - God’s boundary is not a cage . . . it is a guardrail.

What Happens When We Get Outside the Fence

Now if a fence is protecting something, then getting on the wrong side of that fence is going to COST something. If being on one side is protection, being on the other side is the loss of protection.

But we need to be careful here - because it is easy to hear half a verse, or three or four words of what the preacher says, and think, “Preacher, are you saying God is up there in heaven with a rule book and a pencil, just waiting for us to slip up so He can zap us?” No . . . that is not what is happening with the Ten Commandments at all. Think about this - and it is a pretty good example if I do say so myself. Think about a fish on the bank of the river. A fish was made for WATER. A fish was never designed to live on the bank - and the minute that fish is dropped on the bank and starts flopping back and forth, it starts to die. Now can you see that nobody is punishing that fish? Nobody is standing there beating it with a stick . . . it is dying because it is outside the only place that was ever built for it to live.

I want us to see God’s law as the SHAPE of the life that God built for us to live. When we get outside those boundaries, why are we so surprised that life stops working the way it was meant to work? We do not start suffering because God is MEAN . . . we start suffering because we are a fish on the bank instead of a fish in the water.

Now this does not mean that every hardship in our lives is because we crossed a fence somewhere. Job did not cross a fence . . . the blind man over in John chapter nine did not cross a fence - they asked, why is this man blind, did he do something, did his mama and daddy do something? And Jesus said, none of that . . . this man is blind so the works of God would be seen in him - and then He healed him. So every time we suffer, we should not kick ourselves and think, “Well, I must have crossed a fence somewhere - I wonder which one.”

This goes back to FAITH. When they told me I had cancer, the first thing that popped into my mind was, why? Well, that is not good - asking WHY will never, never, never lead us to a good place spiritually. When we begin to suffer, we need to settle a couple of yes-or-no questions. Does God love me - yes or no? Will God ever leave me or forsake me - yes or no? Will God ever do anything to bring me harm - yes or no? You see where we are going with this. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Now that does not say everything that happens is for the best - it says all things work TOGETHER for good. What is good for us is not always what is comfortable. I have taken medicine that tasted awful, but it was for my good - and I would have suffered more by not taking it than I suffered choking it down. If we have faith in Jesus, that faith is what gets us past the suffering.

So is there any place in our lives this morning - where we are flopping around on the bank - and just calling it bad luck? There is no such thing as good luck and bad luck. God intervenes in our lives every minute of every day, and everything God does for us is ultimately for our benefit.

The Law Walks Us to a Door and Knocks

Last Sunday we said that God’s law is the X-ray. The X-ray shows us exactly where the break is, but it does not set the bone - God’s law shows us where we are BROKEN. Now Galatians takes it one step further than the X-ray.

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” - Galatians 3:24-25 (KJV)

I actually learned quite a bit from this scripture. I always thought the schoolmaster was the teacher - but bear with me, the language does not support that. In Paul’s day the schoolmaster was the household SERVANT whose one job was the young man of the house. He got that boy up in the morning, made sure he was dressed, kept him out of the mud holes on the way to school, and walked him right up to the teacher’s door . . . and then he stepped back. The servant was never the teacher . . . the servant was the one who got the boy there to LISTEN to the teacher.

And that is exactly what God’s law has been doing for us - waking us up, keeping us out of the ditch, walking us right up to the door, knocking on it . . . and then stepping back to see whether we are going to live by faith, or whether we are going to define righteousness for our own selves. Justified – is what it means to be counted righteous - by FAITH.

“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” - Romans 8:3-4 (KJV)

The Law is weak through the flesh - it is weak because WE are weak. In the likeness of sinful flesh – refers to how Jesus was in a real body just like ours. So what the law could not do, JESUS did for us. Once we cross that line, the law is not able to carry us back over to the other side . . . so God went and did what the law could not do. God sent His Son.

Have we ever THANKED God for the fence? . . . have we ever thanked Him for loving us enough to tell us the truth about where the edge of that bluff is?

The Line and the Bridge

So let us put the whole thing in one bowl this morning. First - God drew the line clearly and plainly, and He said it out loud to Adam and Eve. He told them exactly what it would COST to cross it. Second - every line that God has ever drawn - is a fence around something that He does not want to lose. Third - even with a fence there to protect us, we cross it anyway. I cross it, you cross it - we ALL have, and we all do. And fourth - God built a BRIDGE back across the line we just stepped over. If it had not been for Jesus, when we crossed that line there would never have been a way back for us. Now we do not come back to find perfection . . . we come back to find FORGIVENESS.

And when I say there is a bridge back, that does not mean God has changed the STANDARD . . . it means God sent Somebody to stand where we could not stand . . . Somebody to do what we could not do . . . Somebody to pay what we could not pay.

So let us hear what was actually said in the Garden of Eden one more time - and hear it the RIGHT way this time, instead of the way Satan told it. The fence on the bluff was not there to spoil the VIEW . . . the fence around the forbidden fruit was there to protect the ones in the garden - and it was put there by Somebody who could not stand the thought of losing us, watching us fall off that bluff.

So for the third time . . . God’s commandments are not a cage. God’s commandments are a guardrail. God loves us, and the fence is there not to hem us in - but to protect us. Please consider what you heard this morning.

Scripture Used

Genesis 3:1-5 · Exodus 20:3 · Exodus 20:13-17 · Galatians 3:24-25 · Romans 8:3-4 · Romans 8:28 · Galatians 2:16 · John 9:1-3 (all KJV)

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Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.

How Prayer Works — The Appointed Means

If He has already made up His mind what He is going to do . . . then what is my praying actually doing?

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A note on the Scripture in this study: every verse is printed WHOLE. The words set in ordinary type are the ones this lesson leans on and emphasizes . . . the words in italics are the rest of the verse, printed so that nothing is ever handed to you as a fragment with the remainder missing.

Part One settled that prayer works . . . this part has to answer the question that comes right behind it . . . and it is the honest question, the one a thinking man asks on the way home.

If God already knows what I need before I ask . . . and if He has already settled what He intends to do . . . then what on earth is my asking adding to it?

I have heard that question put a dozen ways. Sometimes it comes out as a complaint. More often it comes out as a quiet EXCUSE for not praying much – because if the thing was going to happen anyway, then a man can sleep in.

And the Bible does not dodge it. God answers it Himself, out of His own mouth, in one verse in Ezekiel . . . and it is not the answer most people expect.

GOD SAYS IT IN HIS OWN WORDS

Now to get the weight of this verse - we have to see what God had just finished promising . . . read the six verses that come before it – because God is not making a small promise here. He is promising to gather a scattered nation, wash them clean, take out the stony heart, put His own Spirit inside them, and settle them in their land as His own people:

Ezekiel 36:24 — “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.”

Ezekiel 36:25 — “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.”

Ezekiel 36:26 — “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

Ezekiel 36:27 — “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

Ezekiel 36:28 — “And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

I will. I will. I will. Seven times over in those verses . . . there is not one thing in that list that a man could do for himself, and not one thing in it that hangs on anybody being good enough . . . it is settled . . . it is promised . . . and it is God doing every bit of it.

And then comes the verse this whole lesson is built on:

Ezekiel 36:37 — “Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.”

Read that slow. I will yet for this be enquired of. God has just promised the thing – and then He says that He will be ASKED for it before He does it.

That is the whole answer, and it came out of God's own mouth . . . the asking is not something we tack onto God's plan from the outside . . . the asking is IN the plan. God appointed the end . . . and God appointed the road that gets there . . . and praying is a piece of the road.

✍️ AUTHOR'S NOTE

Prayer does not change God’s plan – the idea is that Prayer IS God’s plan… Prayer does not change God – but prayer DOES change what happens… For example consider God announcing JUDGEMENT against Sodom and Gomorrah…

Genesis 18:23 — “And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?”

Genesis 18:24 — “Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?”

Genesis 18:25 — “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Genesis 18:26 — “And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”

The idea here is that – God had already pronounced judgement – He did the same thing to the city of Nineveh in the days of Jonah… Nineveh was spared – Sodom and Gomorrah was not… So – what was the difference – Nineveh REPENTED – Sodom and Gomorrah DID NOT repent… Prayer for mercy was tied directly to the repentance of Nineveh… and when God “repented” of the evil He intended to do unto them – God did not change His definition of right and wrong – but what God DID do – as a direct result of Nineveh’s prayer of repentance - was to choose mercy instead of judgement. So – the path to MERCY – was through the prayer of repentance… while the path to JUDGEMENT was through a refusal to pray a prayer of repentance… Now if all of this was “set in stone” before hand – then what this teaches us is three things 1) that prayer does not change God – but it can change WHAT HAPPENS and 2) Prayer is part of God’s PLAN 3) we see by example the purpose that prayer serves… Prayer is the natural result of repentance – and repentance is the natural result of FAITH – and without faith we cannot please God… So – to please God is for us to experience mercy instead of judgment… Sodom and Gomorrah refused to repent – refused to pray – had no faith and as a result they experienced judgment which COULD have been changed to mercy. Nineveh on the other hand chose to repent – chose to pray – put FAITH in God and as a result they experienced MERCY when they could have experienced judgment… — C.T.

THIS IS NOT STRANGE — GOD DOES EVERYTHING THIS WAY

Now somebody will say that sounds like a game . . . it is not a game, and it is not even unusual . . . because God has run this world that way from the beginning, and we live inside that arrangement every single day without thinking twice about it.

God feeds every man on this earth. And He does it through a plow, and a seed, and a rain, and a harvest, and a man who gets up and goes to work. God ordained that you would eat . . . and He ordained the field you would eat out of.

God gives a man his health – and He gives it through sleep and food and a doctor. God saves souls – and He does it through a preacher and a Bible and somebody's witness. Paul asked the question flat out: how shall they “hear” without a preacher?

Nobody stands in the field and says, well, if God intends for me to have a crop then I do not need to plant . . . we understand it perfectly out there in the field . . . but we only get confused about it when we come inside and start talking about “prayer”...

God ordains the end. God also ordains the means . . . and the praying is the means which brings about THE END which God had determined…

The clearest picture of it in the Bible

Elijah is the best example there is, and James already handed him to us back in Part One . . . so let us go read the account itself, because the order of it is the lesson.

Three and a half years of drought, and then God speaks:

1 Kings 18:1 — “And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.”

So - the rain is settled. God said it. Elijah has it straight from the mouth of God, BEFORE one drop ever falls – and I will send rain upon the earth. Now watch what the man does with a promise he already has in his hand:

1 Kings 18:42 — “So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,”

He goes up on the mountain and puts his face between his knees. He already had the promise . . . and he prayed anyway . . . not because he doubted it – he prayed BECAUSE of the promise. The promise is what gave him something to ask for.

1 Kings 18:43 — “And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.”

Six times that boy came back with nothing. And Elijah sent him again.

1 Kings 18:44 — “And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.”

A cloud the size of a man's hand . . . that is the first thing God gave him after seven trips up that hill . . . and Elijah knew exactly what he was looking at, because he sent word to Ahab to hitch up before the sky had even darkened.

Now here is what I want us to see. The rain was promised, and the rain was prayed for, and both of those are in the same chapter. Elijah did not treat God's promise as a reason to quit praying. He treated it as the reason to start PRAYING.

📖 FROM THE PULPIT

As a young man – while still in high-school – I prayed for God to call me to preach… I understand that The Bible says – “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work” (I Timothy 3:1) teaching us – that God puts ‘the desire’ in a man’s heart… but my point here is that THE DESIRE was present a long time before THE CALL… I knew that I wanted to be a preacher before I graduated high-school – I knew I wanted to be a preacher before I became an engineer – I knew I wanted to be a preacher before I married… but the call came several years AFTER I recognized the desire… Like Elijah – I knew what God had promised (to rain His blessings upon my life) – but that promise is what gave reason to keep going to Him in prayer – that promise is what motivated me to keep watching that cloud… — C.T.

AND THE OTHER SIDE OF IT — WHAT NOT ASKING COSTS

If the asking is the appointed means, then leaving the asking out has a cost. And James says it in the most straight forward sentence in the New Testament on this subject:

James 4:2 — “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”

Ye have not, because ye ask not. Not because God is stingy . . . not because the thing was not His will . . . not because they were not good enough. They have not, because they ask not.

And look at what they were doing instead. Lusting. Fighting. Warring. Scheming to get it some other kind of way . . . that is a picture of a man working himself half to death going AROUND the front door . . . when the door was standing there unlocked the whole time.

The Lord put the same thing the other way around, in a more positive way:

Matthew 7:7 — “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”

Matthew 7:8 — “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

Every one of those is a command with a promise hung on the back of it. And every one of them starts with something WE do.

THE MAIL IN THE PO BOX

Here is the way I understand it best.

Down at the post office there is a box with your name on it, and the mail in that box is yours . . . it was addressed to you, it was paid for, and it was delivered. Nobody is going to take it back . . . but it will sit in that box until somebody walks down there and OPENS it.

The mail being yours is not the same thing as the mail being in your hand.

That is prayer. God has purposed the blessing – it is addressed, it is paid for, and it is already in the box . . . and then He says, I will yet for this be enquired of. Come get it.

And it does not shame a man to go get his own mail . . . the going does not earn the letter . . . but the letter stays in the box until he decides to go...

Simple truth: God appointed the blessing . . . and God appointed the asking . . . and He did not appoint one of them WITHOUT the other.

NOW LET ME GUARD THIS

Two ditches here, and both of them will wreck a man.

The first ditch is thinking my praying MAKES God “do something”. It does not. God is not moved off His purpose by anything I say – and Part Three is going to take that up all by itself, because it deserves the room… My praying does not add power to God… My praying is God's appointed way of handing me what He already purposed to give.

The second ditch is thinking my praying does not matter. And that one is just as wrong, and a good deal MORE COMMON – because it sounds humble . . . it is not humble. God said He would be enquired of. To decide that the asking makes no difference is to argue with a verse where God is telling us how He “does business”...

So we hold both. God is sovereign, and He appointed the asking . . . those two have never once been in a fight, except in our heads.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

The question we started with was, if God has ALREADY made up His mind, what is my praying doing? And the answer is that praying is not something we do to change God's mind . . . it is something God appointed as the way His mind gets carried out.

A man who understands that will pray more, not less . . . because now the praying is not a long shot – it is the road. And God is the one who built the road.

Ye have not, because ye ask not. That is the saddest sentence in the whole study, and it is the easiest one to fix.

TRY IT THIS WEEK

One thing this week, and it is a small thing...

Take something God has already plainly promised in His word – not something you are hoping for, something He has already SAID. Wisdom, if any man lack it. Forgiveness, if we confess. Strength in the day of trouble… you get the idea…

Then ask Him for it anyway, by name, out loud . . . not because you doubt the promise . . . but because Elijah had the promise too, and he still put his face between his knees and prayed…

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NEXT — Part Three: Do I Change God's Mind? The Bible says God is not a man that he should repent . . . and then it turns around and says that the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do. Both of those are in the same book . . . we are going to take that apart word by word.

Does Prayer Really Work? — Three Honest Questions About Prayer

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Wednesday evening service, September 9, 2026 Prayer · James 5:16-18 · Ezekiel 36:37 · James 4:2-3 · Numbers 23:19 · Jonah 3:10 · Isaiah 38:5 · Psalm 66:18

► Watch this lesson on video (50:50)

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Now I gave you a little bit of a teaser this past Sunday. The written part of this - the transcript, however we want to look at it - is already on the church website, and there are twelve more lessons behind it, scheduled one a week. The printed part is coming out first . . . the preaching, I think, is due to start sometime after Thanksgiving. So tonight is kind of a teaser for what those lessons are about - does prayer really work? We are going to talk about three honest questions about prayer, and what the Bible tells us.

Every one of us that has ever knelt down and offered a prayer - if you are like me - has surely wondered these three things. First of all, preacher, does prayer REALLY work? And secondly, well, if prayer does work . . . HOW does it work? And thirdly - and I had to think about this one - when I pray for something to change, do we really change God’s MIND?

Now these are not questions that mean we are weak in the faith. They are the questions of people who actually PRAY . . . and there is no reason to shy away from a single one of them.

The one point of our lesson tonight is this - and how many times am I going to say it? Three times. And what is the significance of saying a thing three times? Well, back in Bible days, when a teacher said something three times it meant the thing was PERMANENT . . . you could write it in stone. So here it is the first time:

God has put the blessing on the other side of the asking . . . and the blessing has to be unwrapped.

Question One - Does Prayer Really Work?

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” - James 5:16-18 (KJV)

Elias, it says - that is the New Testament spelling for Elijah. Now notice what James did NOT say. The Bible does not tell us that prayer helps. The Bible does not say that prayer comforts. The Bible says that prayer AVAILETH MUCH (accomplishes much - has real force) . . . Elijah prayed, and the sky shut down for three and a half years - he prayed again, and the rain came back. Three and a half years of a whole nation’s weather hung on one man’s bent knees in prayer.

Now I want us to notice WHO James picked to talk about prayer. It says Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are . . . and the idea there is that Elijah was not some spiritual giant, and that is not why God heard him. Elijah was just like you and I. The same Elijah who out-prayed the weather is the same man who ran from a woman named Jezebel and asked God to just kill him - went and sat down under that juniper tree and said, “What is my life worth? Just take me on, Lord.” You can read about that in First Kings 19, verses 4 and 5.

And there is one more thing in this verse - and it is something we quote right on past. James did not say the effectual fervent prayer of ANYBODY availeth much. He said the effectual fervent prayer of a RIGHTEOUS MAN availeth much. Now I am not going to open that up tonight - it will not fit - but Part One of the written series takes those four words apart, and I think it will surprise you what is there.

A church that prayed. We have talked about a man who prayed . . . now let us look at a church who prayed. And bear this in mind - this was not some giant of a church that already had one foot in heaven, and that is why God answered them. This church was extremely NORMAL. By normal I mean they probably resembled you and I a great deal.

“Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” - Acts 12:5 (KJV)

Peter was in prison, scheduled - I think - to be executed the next morning, with a handful of soldiers in there with him to keep him from escaping . . . and the chains fell off of Peter that same night. Now here is the interesting part. The prayer meeting that had gathered to pray for Peter was so surprised that it left Peter standing out in the street knocking on the door.

“And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.” - Acts 12:13-16 (KJV)

“You are mad - you are losing your mind” . . . and Peter just kept on knocking. Now do not overlook the sequence Luke wrote down here. The church prayed - and THEN the angel came to lead Peter out of the prison.

Another church that prayed - Antioch, when they sent Paul and Barnabas out on the missionary trip.

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” - Acts 13:2-3 (KJV)

This church at Antioch was in the process of WORSHIPING - not planning what to do next - and the call came during their prayers. And twice in these two verses they fasted. Now I am going to gloss over fasting really quickly and then leave it, because I deal with it directly in a later lesson - lesson eleven of the thirteen, I think. But fasting is not a hunger strike against heaven - “God, I am going to quit eating until You answer my prayer.” That is not what fasting is at all. God’s mercy and God’s patience cannot be bought with good works, and they cannot be bought with skipped meals either. Briefly, fasting is simply the appetite set aside so that prayer can have the whole plate. We sat down to eat - oh, that looks good - and instead we set the plate aside, and instead of spending that time satisfying our appetite we spend the meal time praying, because we are that concerned about whatever the issue happens to be. It is the body being told to WAIT while the soul does business between our heart and God. And notice Jesus said WHEN ye fast . . . He did not say IF ye fast - Matthew 6:16. We will not go there tonight, but sometime in November it will show up on the website, covered thoroughly.

So back to our first question - does prayer actually work? We have seen three prayers tonight that did work. A prophet’s prayer for the weather . . . a prisoner’s chains dropped off . . . a church sent out missionaries. And the Bible’s answer is not “well, prayer works SOMETIMES.” The Bible’s answer is that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So yes - prayer really does work.

Now if prayer availeth that much - accomplishes that much - what does it say about you and I when we reach for prayer pretty much as a LAST resort? We jump in there and try to take care of business ourselves . . . “well, this is not working - I guess I can always pray about it.”

Question Two - How Does Prayer Work?

This is where most of us get tangled up. If God already knows what we need - and He does - and if God has already decided what He is going to do - and He has - then what is my praying actually going to DO?

The plainest answer in the Bible comes out of what God tells us in Ezekiel 36. God had just finished promising Israel a new heart and a restored land. It was decreed. It was settled. It was certain - it was going to happen. But then look at verse 37:

“Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.” - Ezekiel 36:37 (KJV)

God had ALREADY promised the blessing . . . and He still required the asking. So the prayer was never going to change His plan - it turns out the prayer WAS His plan. Prayer was the appointed pipeline, if you will, that the promised blessing would travel through.

Think about a well. We have used a well and a bucket in several of our last few lessons. The water is down under the ground the whole time . . . but the BUCKET is what brings the water up. No bucket, no water. If we do not ask, there will be no blessing. That is how prayer works without changing God one bit - God ordains the ends, and He ordains the means to get there . . . and praying is the means God set in motion.

There are blessings that God has purposed to give ONLY through the asking. And those blessings sit undelivered over an un-prayed people - like mail sitting in a PO box down at the post office that nobody ever comes to pick up. The mail has the proper postage on it. The rent on the box has been paid. It is sitting in that box tonight, waiting on us to use the prayer KEY. I have a key I use to unlock my PO box down at the post office - well, that blessing is in there waiting on us to use the prayer key, unlock the box, and get the mail that already has our name on it.

“Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” - James 4:2-3 (KJV)

Ye have not, because ye ask not. Now everybody remembers that Elijah prayed for rain - that is what pops into our mind. But almost nobody looks at what came FIRST, before his prayer was ever offered.

“And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.” - 1 Kings 18:1 (KJV)

Elijah had not prayed for rain yet . . . and God says, “Go tell Ahab it is going to rain.” The rain was PROMISED before the prayer was ever prayed. The mail was already in the PO box. And even so, Elijah climbed Mount Carmel, put his face between his knees, and prayed seven times until a cloud like a little hand rose up out of the sea. The promise AND the praying were both God’s plan . . . the rain came THROUGH the prayer.

Now in the original Greek, “effectual fervent” is not two words but one - energoumene, and our English word energy comes right out of it. It means IN-WORKING . . . prayer that is operating, prayer that is engaged, prayer that is energized. There are religions where prayer is a chant recited over and over - this is not a prayer that is chanted, and it is not a prayer that is recited. This is prayer that is ENGAGED . . . when our whole self, everything we are, leans into the asking.

Just a brief touch of that fasting idea again. If I am watching TV with a burden on my heart - “oh, I will pray when a commercial comes on” - then I must not be very concerned, if I am putting the appetite of my flesh to watch that show ahead of taking my burden to God. Satisfy self-first and give God the leftovers . . . that is not our whole self-leaning into the asking. We will talk a great deal more about that in the fasting lesson.

So here is something to slow down and ask - and wait on the answer. What has God set aside for us, His church, this week . . . that is still sitting in the PO box because we have not taken out the prayer key yet? Ye have not, because ye ask not.

And that is the one point of our lesson, the second time: God has put the blessing on the other side of the asking . . . and the blessing has to be unwrapped.

Question Three - Do I Change God’s Mind When I Pray?

Now this one is a little more difficult, and I am not going to dodge it - I am going to hit it head on. When I pray for a sick child . . . when I pray for a wandering son, a wandering church member . . . when I pray for a job, or for a good diagnosis from the doctor - am I talking God into something He was not going to do anyway?

Well, let us take the Bible and use two hands. Figuratively, pick it up in two hands . . . I say that because the Bible says two different things here, and BOTH of them are true. First of all, the Bible plainly says that God does not change:

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” - Numbers 23:19 (KJV)

God does not have better ideas at nine o’clock than He had at eight o’clock. That is not the way it works. Now the same Bible also says the Lord REPENTED:

“And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” - Exodus 32:14 (KJV)

That is the golden calf. Moses stood in the gap - he interceded, he prayed - and God relented. And here is another one:

“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” - Jonah 3:10 (KJV)

So which is it? Does God not change . . . or does He sometimes repent? Well, actually, it is both - and here is the key that opens both of them. The Hebrew word translated repented is nacham (to relent - to be moved with pity). It does not mean God changed His mind about what is right and what is wrong. It means He RELENTED in terms of judgment . . . He turned away from the thing He announced. Why? Because He was moved with pity.

Now think about this, preacher. When I was lost, I was under the condemnation of God - headed straight for hell. That judgment had been pronounced against me. It was decreed, it was sure, it was a done deal. But when I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior, what happened? That judgment went AWAY. God repented, if you will, of the judgment He had pronounced on me as a lost man. Why? Because I put my faith in Jesus Christ. So God did not change - He did not change His idea of right and wrong one bit. He relented . . . He extended mercy because of how this preacher repented and put his faith in Jesus Christ.

Picture a man in a small boat out on the water. He throws a rope around a big rock on the bank, and he pulls on that rope. Now watch what actually MOVES. Depending on where we are sitting, it looks for all the world like the rock is coming toward the boat . . . but the rock does not move an inch. The rock is God. The BOAT is what moves. Judgment is pronounced, repentance is practiced, and that judgment is put off.

In Jonah 3, Nineveh is the boat. “Forty days and you are going to perish” - God announced judgment on a wicked city, and that city turned in sackcloth from the king all the way down to the cattle in the field. God did not change. NINEVEH is what changed - and God’s unchanging character met that city right where they stood. He met them AFTER repentance had taken place . . . He did not meet them in the middle of their rebellion. Nineveh cast the rope of repentance around the Rock of Ages and began to pull, and the Rock of Ages did not move an inch - it was the repenting city that moved, and every pull on that rope brought them closer to the Rock. When we repent - when we lasso that big rock on the shore and begin to pull - our repentance moves US closer and closer to the Rock of our salvation. The Rock is not what changes. We are what changes . . . and the consequence of that change is that judgment is set aside. That is not God changing His mind. That is God being CONSISTENT with His love and with His character.

And notice this. If God had kept His plans for judgment a secret, Nineveh would have had no motive at all to repent. If God kept His judgment against the sin in our life a secret, what motive would we ever have to repent - to change, to throw that rope around the Rock of Ages and pull ourselves closer to Him? And if God had spared an UNREPENTANT Nineveh, THAT would have been God changing His definition of right and wrong. But God did not change. He was simply being consistent with His character, with His love, and with His desire to show mercy and forgiveness.

Hezekiah. A thought came to me while I was working on this - King Hezekiah. You remember Hezekiah was told flat out, no bones about it - set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. And the Bible says Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and he wept, and he prayed . . . and God sent the prophet back.

“Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” - Isaiah 38:5 (KJV)

Now this is not symbolic. These are fifteen REAL years - a real answer to a real prayer. But listen to this, and it will help us understand that God does not change - the rock is not what moves, it is always the boat. The God who gave those fifteen years knew about that prayer, and knew about those tears, before Hezekiah was ever born. I have heard men preach on the radio who did not believe that . . . but God knows the end from the very beginning. He knows how many hairs are on my head and on yours. He knows what my attitude is going to be tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. Hezekiah’s prayer did not AMBUSH God - it did not catch Him off guard. The prayer was the road those fifteen extra years traveled on.

And do not miss the tenderness in it - “I have heard thy prayer; I have SEEN THY TEARS.” God is not some unfeeling force off somewhere in the heavens. God is a Father who, in every sense of the word, literally LOVES His children. God has tied real outcomes to real asking . . . which means our prayers do not carry pretend weight. Our prayers carry REAL weight.

Now the effectual fervent prayer - the energized prayer, the engaged prayer - availeth much IF it is prayed by a righteous man. Well, are we righteous? The Bible says there is none righteous, no, not one - and we will touch more on that later - but we ARE righteous if we are hiding behind the righteous blood of Jesus Christ. So the idea is not “if you misbehave, preacher, your prayers will not be answered.” We will go into depth on what hinders prayer in later lessons . . . but it is not my behavior that hinders my prayer. It is my ATTITUDE - it is pride - “I am depending on my own righteousness and not God’s.” That is just a little tease for what is coming.

What About When the Answer Is No?

Now somebody is already asking the next question - and it really is a question we have all asked. Preacher, what about when the answer is NO? What about the prayer that was prayed and prayed, and the little child died anyway? What about the prayer that was prayed and prayed, and the son or the daughter never did come home?

I have a lesson dedicated specifically to that question, and I am not going to handle it in two minutes at the end of a lesson - it deserves a great deal more than the time we have left. But let me say this much tonight, and I will make you a promise. When the answer is no, it does not mean that “nature” out-muscled God. Nature answers to God just like you and I do. It means that a Father - a heavenly Father, “I have seen thy tears” - a Father who loves us said no to a good thing for a BETTER reason . . . a reason we just cannot see from where we are standing.

When we get to First, Second, and Third John - and I have lessons prepared for that - you will find that John talks in spirals. It is like a spiral staircase inside a lighthouse. Down on the first floor there is a window, and I look out of it - no big deal, I see what I see. Go around the staircase and I am looking in the SAME direction, only a little bit higher, and I can see a little bit more. Well, that is the idea when God says no. He says it for a reason we cannot see down here on the first floor . . . which, if we were up on the third or fourth floor, we would be able to see plainly. But once again - our responsibility to God is not to understand. It is simply to OBEY. And if we have faith in God we really will not need to know why . . . the why will be “because God loves me.” He never has and He never will do one thing that will harm me - everything God ever has done or ever will do is for my betterment. And if we really believe that, then God’s grace (the influence of God on our heart - that is what grace is) will hold us up when the answer is no. Now if we do not believe it, we get bitter, and we get angry . . . and you know what anger and bitterness do? They move a person right out of the faith.

So having said all of that - do we change God’s mind when we pray? No. We do not change God’s mind. And if we think about it, we really would not WANT to . . . because a God I could talk into something is a God Brother Kenneth could talk right back out of it - or somebody more eloquent than Ken and me put together. What we change is not God. What we change, by God’s own appointment, is what HAPPENS. And remember, there is one Lord, one faith, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all - just ONE truth. If God is light, if God is truth, if God is love . . . then if we could change God’s mind, what would happen to the truth? It just would not work.

How Do We Pray This Week?

Three things.

One - ask God. Ask by name, on purpose - out loud, and when I say out loud, I mean in your mind if need be. You know, unclaimed mail is a sad thing to think about - like a tax refund sitting in a PO box. “That three-thousand-dollar check has been in that mailbox forever . . . I wish I had known - I would have gone and gotten it.”

Two - ask according to His will. Ye have not because ye ask not . . . ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. “I want that three thousand dollars to buy a boat” - that is desiring it to consume it on our own lusts. “I would like to have that three thousand dollars because I have got a neighbor who needs some help” - you see the difference?

“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:” - 1 John 5:14 (KJV)

“Oh, all I have to do is ask for that new Cadillac and it will happen.” That is not what this means - no more than the man in the moon. Even Jesus in the garden, before He was crucified, prayed, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” I really do not want to do this . . . nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will. That is not weakness. That is actually the STRONGEST kind of prayer there is - giving up our desire so that God’s will can take the place of it.

Three - keep the line clear.

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” - Psalm 66:18 (KJV)

Now this is something else I learned here. That does not mean if I say “doggone” when I stump my toe Saturday night, my prayers are hindered on Sunday. To regard iniquity means to CHERISH it - to long for it, to have a sweet spot for unconfessed sin. “I treasure this sin . . . I value this sin . . . I cherish this sin.” That is regarding iniquity in the heart. That is not stumbling, and it is not a mistake. It is “I am not going to go steady with the truth, because I have got a secret love affair over here with an error I just cannot let go of.”

The water is still on at the faucet. “Hey, I thought the water was on!” Well, it is . . . it is just not coming out. Why? The hose is KINKED. The faucet is still on, but the blessing never arrives, because we kinked the hose. Settle the debt in our heart now - confess it - and do not let things pile up and block the hose. That attitude is what keeps the line clear. And once again, let me be very clear - it is not a mistake, it is not a doggone, it is not “well, I tripped and fell.” It is a cherished attitude toward something God has forbidden . . . and THAT will hinder our prayers just like that.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Tonight was just one lesson, and one lesson is not enough to cover the whole subject of prayer. We have talked about questions tonight that I did not finish - and I did not finish them on PURPOSE. On our preaching schedule we have the Route 66 series, we have the Give Thanks lessons, all lined up straight through to Thanksgiving. But the written series on prayer - BEHIND THE ASKING, thirteen parts - has already started. Part One went up this past Sunday, and some of you have already read it. A new part is scheduled every Sunday morning at seven o’clock, straight through the end of November . . . and when we get to the end of November, I will take those written lessons and turn them into sermons, and we will do it like this. It is on the Bookshelf on the website - the link says PRAYER.

So tonight is not the end of a lesson on prayer. Tonight is the front door. The PO box is FULL of mail. “I will yet for this be enquired of . . . to do it for them.” There are things God has purposed for this church and for every one of us - things that, if we were honest, are sitting in the PO box tonight waiting for the prayer key to open the door and get the mail.

Elijah prayed, and the heavens gave rain. The church prayed for Peter, and the chains fell off of him in the prison. Hezekiah prayed, and God said, “I have seen thy tears.” And not a single one of those prayers changed God’s mind. Every one of them received what God had put on the other side of the asking.

Now, for the third time - what was the one point of our lesson tonight? God has put the blessing on the other side of the asking . . . and the blessing has to be unwrapped.

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” - James 5:16 (KJV)

So let us go home and ASK. Whatever the desire on our heart is - use the prayer key. Open the PO box. Why? Because the mail is already in there, and it already has our name on it. All we have to do is ask. And do not ask for a Cadillac - that is not what it is talking about. Ask for God’s will to be done . . . and ninety-nine percent of the time God’s will is not the same as His preacher’s will. “I want stuff, I want this, I want that” - when we pray with that attitude we are not praying according to God’s will. We are praying according to our own.

Scripture Used

James 5:16-18 · 1 Kings 19:4-5 · Acts 12:5, 13-16 · Acts 13:2-3 · Matthew 6:16 · Ezekiel 36:37 · James 4:2-3 · 1 Kings 18:1 · Numbers 23:19 · Exodus 32:14 · Jonah 3:10 · Isaiah 38:1-5 · Ephesians 4:5-6 · 1 John 5:14 · Matthew 26:39 · Psalm 66:18 (all KJV)

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Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.

One Book, One Author, One Story

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday evening service, September 6, 2026 Route 66 · On-Ramp 1 · Luke 24:27 · 2 Timothy 3:16 · 2 Peter 1:21 · Proverbs 9:10

Watch this lesson on video (28:12)

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This morning we learned that the God who made everything has the right to make the law . . . and this evening we are going to begin a rather lengthy series - we are going to look at the Book - where He wrote that law down. Now this is going to take, oh, about two years. We will do other things off and on - so it will not be a steady diet of this and nothing else . . . but tonight is the start of it - and the one point of our lesson this evening is this:

One Book. One Author. One story - and the story is Jesus Christ.

Why We Call It Route 66

I have named this series Route 66, and the reason is simple . . . there are 66 books in the Bible.

Now some of us are old enough to remember when Route 66 was THE road. They called it the Mother Road, according to some articles I read. One highway, Chicago to Los Angeles . . . eight states, three time zones, a little over two thousand miles. It ran through farms and deserts and mountains . . . through little towns with one stoplight, and through big cities that never went to bed. You could stand on that road in Illinois or stand on that road in Arizona - SAME road - different scenery - depending on where you were . . . but no matter where you were standing on it - that road led to the same place.

Well - what I am leading up to is this - we hold Route 66 in our hands EVERY service. Sixty-six books . . . written across fifteen hundred years - on three continents - in three languages - by some forty different writers. There were kings and shepherds - King David was one of them. Part of it was written by a doctor - remember Luke was a physician. There was a tax collector - Matthew. There were fishermen - most of the disciples made their living that way - and a tentmaker - the Apostle Paul. There was Daniel - one of the big wigs in Babylon . . . and does anybody know who the fig picker was? I learned this one myself . . . Amos. The man who wrote Amos made his living picking figs.

Genesis does not look like Psalms. Leviticus does not read the way Luke reads. But this Book is ONE ROAD - and every mile on this road is going to the same place. Brother Ken touched on it this morning. No matter where you are - no matter what the scenery looks like - no matter what book you are in - it all points where? To Jesus Christ.

So here is the plan . . . starting sometime in October, we are going to drive the whole highway. On Sunday mornings - not every Sunday morning, but every six weeks or so - I will have a sermon that introduces a particular BLOCK of books. I have divided them up . . . the history - the poetry - the gospels - the letters - blocks like that. And then on Sunday evenings - just about every Sunday evening - we will actually get down into one of the books that morning introduced. Morning gives us the MAP of the block - evening gives us the MILES.

So what is the one point of our lesson this evening? One Book, one Author, one story . . . and the story is Jesus.

One Author Behind Forty Writers

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” - 2 Timothy 3:16 (KJV)

Now think about what we have said so far - forty writers, fifteen hundred years . . . put that in perspective. Fifteen hundred years ago from today would be the year 526 . . . a long time ago . . . a thousand years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The point is - most of the men who wrote the Bible NEVER met each other . . . Moses never read Matthew - and David never heard of the Apostle Paul. You have a shepherd somewhere around 800 BC and a prisoner in Rome around 60 AD - and they could not compare notes - they could not coordinate their stories - they could not agree on a plot.

And yet we have ONE story. One unbroken story that tells us in Genesis about a paradise lost - and tells us in Revelation about a paradise restored. A promise made in the Garden of Eden - the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head - Genesis 3:15 - and that promise was kept on a hill outside Jerusalem some four thousand years after it was first penned. Then there is the picture of a sacrifice - the ULTIMATE sacrifice - running all the way through . . . the coats of skin God made for Adam. The ram caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah in Abraham’s day. The lamb whose blood was spattered on the lintel and the doorposts in Egypt. Every one of them a picture, and every one of them pointing to the DAY John looked up and said, “Behold the Lamb of God.”

No committee wrote that . . . no group of men sat down and put that together. Forty men across fifteen centuries kept one story straight - and they did not do it by accident. There is one AUTHOR behind all the human writers.

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” - 2 Peter 1:21 (KJV)

So - the unity of the Bible is one of the standing proofs - if you are looking for proof - that this Book really is what it claims to be. It is not sixty-six books that men collected over the years - it is ONE Book that God gave to reveal Himself to mankind.

Now we talk about landmarks in this church a lot - those things most surely believed among us - and there are twenty-one of them. If you have them numbered - I believe this one is the second… We believe in the infallible, verbal inspiration of the whole Bible, and that the Bible is the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice. There is nothing else NEEDED . . . we do not need some new program to supplement what God has already given us in the Book.

Somebody will say - “Well, what about the Old Testament? We don’t do the sacrifices anymore.” It is not that the Old Testament is no longer valid - and the OT is certainly not some afterthought tacked on to the New. The Old Testament - like Brother Ken was saying this morning - is FULL of pictures. The Bible calls it a shadow of good things to come. The Old Testament way of worship is NOT what we practice today . . . but the pictures the Old Testament gives us of what worship looks like - those are still good.

And that is one of the reasons I thought it proper to preach through all sixty-six books. A church that believes the Scriptures are the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice - ought to know SOMETHING about all sixty-six of them. So let me ask - no show of hands - how many of the sixty-six books have each of us actually read? By the end of this series - if the Lord does not come back first - this whole church will be able to say - “Well - I may not have read every one of them front to back . . . but I have at least read part of every one.”

The Story Is a Person

Now the story we are talking about is not just a story . . . it is a PERSON. You go down the highway and you pass the mile markers, and every mile marker on this road points to the person Jesus Christ.

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” - Luke 24:27 (KJV)

This was on the road to Emmaus. Jesus had been raised from the dead - and two of the disciples were walking that road - about seven miles, I think – discouraged - and Jesus fell in beside them and they had no idea who He was. And what did He do for seven miles? “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in ALL the scriptures the things concerning HIMSELF.” ALL the scriptures - things concerning HIMSELF. Jesus Himself testified that this whole highway – Moses - the prophets - all of it - is about Him.

Jesus is the seed of the woman in Genesis. He is the Passover lamb in Exodus. He is the offering in Leviticus. He is the brazen serpent in Numbers - and the prophet like unto Moses in Deuteronomy. He is the kinsman redeemer in Ruth. He is David’s greater Son . . . He is Job’s living Redeemer. He is the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 and the Sun of righteousness in Malachi. And then Matthew opens - and the shadow of the Old Testament becomes FLESH - flesh that can be seen and touched.

We are going to fit another little series in betwixt and between all this - First, Second, and Third John. John testifies that he has seen and touched this Christ. There was false doctrine going around in his day that said anything holy could not be made flesh . . . if God was perfect and holy - He could not be flesh and blood. That is one reason John says - “I have seen Him - I have touched Him - I have handled Him” - and the rest of those three little letters chase that error down. We will get to that LATER.

So - on Sunday evenings we will have sixty-six lessons - but not sixty-six subjects. One PERSON - seen from sixty-six different angles. Every lesson - and I have most of them at least roughed out - takes ONE key verse - a particular verse in that book that unlocks the reason the book was written. In the gospel of John it would be, “these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” That is the key that unlocks John . . . you find that verse - and it explains the purpose of everything else in the book. And we are going to do that sixty-six times.

When those two disciples got to Emmaus and found out who had been walking with them - they said, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he opened to us the scriptures?” Well - that is the goal . . . my hope is that as we go through these sixty-six verses - we will have that same kind of burning in our hearts - as we open the Scriptures and see things we never really noticed before.

Let me say it again. One Book. One Author. One story - and the story is Jesus.

The Trip Rules

You go on any trip and there are usually a couple of rules. “We are not stopping every ten minutes for the bathroom” - that kind of thing. So here are the rules for this one.

Rule number one - every lesson stands on its OWN. They are connected - but you do not have to hear this Sunday’s lesson to understand next Sunday’s. You can miss a Sunday and not be lost. Every book has its own key - its own verse that opens that particular book.

Rule number two - the morning lessons and the evening lessons work TOGETHER. October the 4th - I believe - is the first of what I am calling the landing sermons. That Sunday morning introduces the first block of books - and then that evening - and the evenings after it - we actually take the trip through them. Morning says - “Here is Matthew - here is Luke - here is John.” Evening asks, “Now what was the purpose of Matthew? What was the purpose of John?”

Rule number three - bring your BIBLE . . . sixty-six books means one Sunday night we may be in Obadiah. Anybody ever read Obadiah? Another Sunday we may be in Nahum - or Philemon - books a lot of us have never really read. And when we are done - there will not be a book in this whole Bible that we have not opened together - and gotten something out of.

Now here is one thing I decided while I was laying this out. I thought, well - do we just start in Genesis and drive straight through to Revelation? And I thought - no . . . we are not going to drive it in that order. Remember the staircase in Second Peter? Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance . . . all the way up. We are going to take these books in STAIRCASE order - following the tools we need to climb that staircase. So - it will not start in Genesis and end in Revelation.

What do you suppose the first lesson will be, then? Think about Proverbs. If we do not have wisdom – knowledge - and understanding - we really do not have anything - do we?

Closing

Our first REAL stop on this road is going to be Proverbs.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” - Proverbs 9:10 (KJV)

You see, Genesis shows us where the WORLD began . . . but Proverbs shows us where WISDOM begins.

“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” - Isaiah 40:8 (KJV)

So - you have one Book - one Author - and one story. And who is the whole Bible about? It is about Jesus Christ.

I hope I have whetted your appetite a little . . . it will take a long time to get through sixty-six books - and there will be some pauses along the way so it does not get stale. But if the good Lord has laid anything at all on your heart this evening - I encourage you - while you have the time - to take advantage of it.

Scripture Used

2 Timothy 3:16 · 2 Peter 1:21 · Luke 24:27 · Proverbs 9:10 · Isaiah 40:8 (all KJV)

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Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page, and this series has its own home on The Route 66 Journey.