The Word of Life — 1 John 1:1-4

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday evening service, September 27, 2026 1, 2 & 3 John · Unit 1 · 1 John 1:1-4 · Luke 24:39 · 1 Corinthians 2:9 · John 15:11

► Watch this lesson on video (51:15)

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You might want to put your fingers in a few places tonight - 1 John 1, Luke 24, 1 Corinthians 2, and the gospel of John chapter 15 . . . so John, Luke, Paul, and then John again.

Two weeks ago we started looking at First John - who wrote it, who it was written to, and why it got written . . . and tonight we are going to open it and start to CLIMB. We have been talking about staircases here lately, so to go right along with that, tonight we start climbing the staircase that we find inside the letter of First John.

Now I want us to use our imagination for just a minute. Let us put ourselves somewhere around the year AD 90 - almost sixty years after the resurrection . . . and one by one, all the men who had actually walked the dusty roads with Jesus Christ in the flesh are GONE - according to history, they are all dead. Peter has been crucified. James - who was John’s own brother - died by Herod’s sword. Thomas went all the way to India, and died there being thrust through with a spear.

And there is ONE man left alive who was there with Jesus - and now he is up in his eighties, maybe his nineties, living in Ephesus, a big crowded Roman city over on the coast . . . and he is the last human being on this earth who had literally walked beside Jesus Christ before the cross. John stood near the cross when most of the others ran. John ran to the empty tomb. John watched the risen Lord cook fish for breakfast down on the shore . . . and at the last supper, John leaned his head over against Jesus and heard His heart beat.

That is the man who is sitting down to write a letter - and he is not writing it to a king, not to a council, not to a missionary board . . . but to ordinary believers in house churches - to people a whole lot like the people sitting in this room tonight - people who had been fed some dangerous ideas by some very persuasive men.

Now what does the last eyewitness want them to know FIRST - before he brings up anything else? If it had been me, I would probably have started with a list of rules . . . you really need to do this, and this, and this. But John does not start with a rule. Not a ritual. Not a list of do’s and don’ts. He starts with this - it was REAL. I heard Him with my ears. I saw Him with my eyes. My hands touched Him . . . and the reason I am telling you all of this is so that you can have the very same thing that I have.

So let us hear these first four verses the way John’s readers heard them the very first time they ever read them.

“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; (For the life was manifested (shown - brought out where it could be seen), and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” - 1 John 1:1-4 (KJV)

The last eyewitness wrote it down for one reason - so that our joy might be full.

The Evidence - Four Words That Close the Distance

Now John opens this letter the way a witness opens his testimony up on the stand in a court of law . . . not with a theory, not with an argument, not with a “well, judge, this is what I THINK happened.” I have watched just about every Perry Mason there ever was, and I do not recall a witness one time starting off with what he thought - they start off with EVIDENCE. And this is the touch-it, see-it, hear-it kind of evidence - the kind that leaves no wiggle room, no way to just brush it aside.

Look at what he does in that first verse. He piles up FOUR words - four action words, four verbs - and they tell us the four ways the apostles came to know what they knew. And they are not thrown at us in random order. Remember, God is the One who authored this Book . . . He just used a man as the pen . . . so these four words were laid down in a particular order, on purpose - and every one of them gets CLOSER than the one before it.

“Which we have HEARD.” That one is the farthest away - because sound travels . . . we can hear a man talking clear across a field and never be anywhere close to him. Hearing is the easiest thing we do - it takes no effort at all. As young as little Eliza is, she can already hear . . . it does not take much.

“Which we have SEEN with our eyes.” Now with this one we have to be in the same room. We have to be PRESENT to see a thing . . . that is closer than just hearing - and it takes at least a little effort . . . we have to open our eyes and turn our head.

“Which we have LOOKED UPON.” That third one is a gazing word - a staring word, a STUDYING word . . . not a quick glance, but time actually spent taking it all in - the way we look at something that truly matters to us . . . the way we look at the one person on this earth we love the most.

“And our hands have HANDLED.” That fourth one is the closest of them all - it means within arm’s reach. We cannot handle what is not right there in front of us . . . it is physical CONTACT. The eternal Word of life - in the man Christ Jesus - came close enough to TOUCH. Do you see what John is doing here? He is describing the incarnation - that is God putting His own divine nature down inside of human flesh, in the form of the man we know as Jesus Christ . . . God existing in a flesh-and-blood body, a man with five senses just like the ones we have. And every one of these four words closes the distance one more step - until there is no distance left at all, and an old man’s hand closes around the actual body of Jesus.

And notice how he starts it - “that which was from the BEGINNING.” John opened his gospel the very same way - “In the beginning was the Word” . . . he is telling us that what he touched did not START when he touched it. The Word was before all things . . . the eternal God stepped down into time and became touchable.

Now here is something else for us to notice. That word “handled” - the very word John reached for - just happens to be the same word Jesus Himself used on the first Easter. Three days after the cross, the Lord stands in a locked room full of scared disciples, and He says -

“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” - Luke 24:39 (KJV)

HANDLE me. The resurrected Jesus said that same word - and John was IN that room, and heard Him say it. So sixty years later, when this old man writes “our hands have HANDLED,” he is not just reaching for any old word . . . he is using Jesus’ own word. That first Easter is hiding down inside the very first verse of First John.

Two weeks ago we met the men who had walked out of that church teaching that Jesus only SEEMED to have a body. And John does not answer their philosophy with a better philosophy . . . he takes the witness stand, and he gives four action words as evidence - I heard Him, I saw Him, I studied Him, and these hands of mine literally TOUCHED Him.

Now somebody might say, well preacher, that is just a good story that got bigger over the years. I was at work one day and a fellow was telling about a fish he caught - said it weighed four pounds and thirteen ounces . . . but it got away before he ever got it up to the boat. Well now - if it got away, how did he know exactly what it weighed? A story grows like that when there is nobody left to correct it. But this is not that. This is an old man saying, MY hands were there . . . and what my hands touched changed everything for me - in life, and in death - and I am telling you now, so that it can change everything for you too.

Now here is a HOOK to hang your hat on. On the day that our believing feels a little thin - a day of trouble, a day of weakness - what does our faith actually rest on? Does it rest on a MOOD - strong faith when we feel good, weak faith when we do not - or does it rest on an old man’s hands, on the record?

The Fellowship - a Seat at the Table

Now WHY did John write any of this down? He tells us right up front in verse three - he declared it, he made it public, he put it in writing . . . so “that ye also may have FELLOWSHIP with us.” And watch how he traces the connection - “truly our fellowship is with the FATHER, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” This connection does not just run sideways, believer to believer to believer . . . it runs UP - to the Father, to the Son, to the men who saw Him, and then on down to US who take it all by faith.

Now that word “fellowship” - it is a Greek word, and we are going to take a run at saying it one time . . . koinonia. And we have let that word go soft on us over the years. We use it for the coffee after service, for the meal down in the fellowship hall . . . but in John’s day, “fellowship” was a BUSINESS word - it meant partners who OWNED something together. Not folks who simply got along. If Bro. Ken and I were partners in his accounting firm, there would be a connection between us that ran a whole lot deeper than “well, Kenneth is a good buddy and we drink coffee together.” It would be shared life. It would be partners who owned something together.

So John is saying - what I have with the Father, and with the Son - this inside access, this shared life - this FELLOWSHIP can be YOURS too . . . so that we will not be somebody standing out in the yard watching the family through the window - but somebody who belongs at the table, on the inside of the house.

Think about the difference. There is a hungry man out in the yard, and the family is sitting down to supper. One way to feed him is to crack the door, hand him a plate, and let him eat out there on the sidewalk. He gets FED . . . but he is not inside. The other way is to open the door all the way and say, pull up a chair . . . sit down here with the family. Now he gets fed EITHER way - but one of those is a whole lot better than the other. Being handed a plate through the crack in the door - that is being connected to God through service . . . but sitting down at the table - THAT is fellowship with the God we serve. And John wrote this letter so that we could pull up a chair, pass the cornbread, get SECONDS . . . and get plumb bloated on peach cobbler at the end of the meal - instead of standing out on the sidewalk, satisfied with crumbs on a styrofoam plate handed through a crack in the door.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” - 1 Corinthians 2:9 (KJV)

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, the FEAST God has laid out for the ones who will pull up a chair at His table. That is the whole difference between a plate through the crack and a seat at the table.

And that is exactly why the evidence back in verses one and two matters so much. A fellowship built on a made-up story - built on a philosophy, built on religion - is a house built on the SAND . . . and before the weather turns, there is not a nickel’s worth of difference between the house on the sand and the house on the rock . . . they both look fine. It is only when the rain comes down and the wind begins to blow that we find out which is which. And when that house on the sand goes, the Book says great was the fall of it - not a partial loss . . . a TOTAL loss, nothing left to salvage. It is first cousin to what Paul says over in First Corinthians three about the wood, the hay, and the stubble -

“If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” - 1 Corinthians 3:15 (KJV)

Saved - yes . . . but everything he had built his confidence on, burned clean up. A fellowship built on the seen, the heard, the HANDLED testimony of the last apostle is a house built on the ROCK - the storm comes, and it makes no difference at all, because the house is still standing when the sun comes back out.

The last eyewitness wrote it down for one reason - so that our joy might be full.

The Joy - a Cup Kept Full

Now here is the direction this whole letter has been headed all along - and John comes right out and tells us, before one single hard verse ever shows up.

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

Let that one soak in a minute . . . because some of what is coming in this letter sounds HARD. Do we really know Him? Do we really love our brother? Are we really walking in the light? Questions like that can give a person cause to worry . . . but this verse right here is the KEY that unlocks every hard passage we are going to run into in this letter. Find an empty spot in your Bible at the top of every chapter in First John - there are five of them - and write these words up there in that white space: “that your joy may be FULL.” Because when we come to a verse that does not make us feel warm and fuzzy at first glance, the reason it is even there is so that our joy may be full.

And the word John uses for “full” carries the idea of being filled - and being KEPT filled. Filled, and standing filled . . . continuing to stay filled. This is not being filled with joy on one good Sunday - not after one exceptional service where everybody drives home glad. This is a cup that God means to top off, and to keep topped off . . . my cup runneth over, and it just keeps running over. Our faith may go up and down. Our mood may go from the mountaintop to the valley and back. But for our joy to be FULL - that part does not have to rise and fall with it.

And if that sounds a little familiar, it is because we have heard it before - from Jesus Himself, in the upper room, the night before the cross.

“These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” - John 15:11 (KJV)

Jesus said it at the table . . . John HEARD Him say it at that table . . . and sixty years later he writes it down again - because it is STILL the goal.

Now think about this from a daddy’s side of the supper table. When a good father asks his children some hard questions - Wyatt, were you being kind to your little brother today? are you treating your cousins right? - is he trying to trap them . . . is he building a CASE against them? Of course he is not. A good father asks the hard question because he wants his children to be WELL - and to be enjoying the full run of everything he has already provided for them under his roof. That is exactly what God is doing in every hard verse of First John. God is not prosecuting His children . . . God is a Father, checking to see that His children are enjoying the home He has already PAID for - and He paid for it with His own blood.

So say it plainly for the tender heart that is listening tonight - these tests are not scales that we weigh our salvation on. John is writing so that rattled, worn-out, ordinary believers can quit doubting - and so the counterfeits will quit pretending. A question from a FATHER is not a summons from a judge. I am an engineer - I can work about any math problem you put in front of me, or used to could . . . but I could not begin to tell you how many math problems I got WRONG getting there. We have to miss a few, as we learn.

Now think again about that HOOK - have we been reading First John as a threatening letter . . . or as a joy-filling letter? Which way does our Christianity RUN - on a low-grade dread, or on a cup that is kept full?

His Hands on the Record

Let me bring it back around to that old man in Ephesus - at a rough table, in a city that had no idea it was making history that afternoon . . . the hands that had touched the risen Jesus, now wrapped around a pen.

Our Christian faith is not a philosophy. It is not a mood that passes off when life gets hard. It is not a tradition that everybody just keeps repeating because it is a familiar way of life. Our Christian faith is eyewitness TESTIMONY - the kind of evidence that stands up in a courtroom, because the witness was actually THERE. And that testimony is filed, it is sealed, it is given under oath . . . I heard Him. My eyes saw Him. I gazed at Him across a table, on a hillside, and out on a boat in the middle of a storm. My hands touched Him. Four words. One old man . . . and his hands are on the official record.

He wrote all of it down so that WE - on a Sunday night in Dardanelle, Arkansas - could have exactly what he had . . . that whole chain of real FELLOWSHIP that runs from the Father, through the Son, through the witnesses, all the way down to our church pew this evening - so that we can pull up a chair and sit as FAMILY at the table, instead of being handed a plate at the door.

And here is one more reason we can be at peace when nothing around us is - the Bible calls it the peace that passes all understanding. Somebody looks at a child of God and cannot figure it out . . . the house is leaking, the car is breaking down, the dog is sick, the shoes do not fit and there is no money to buy any more - what in the world is wrong with you, how can you have any peace at all? I will tell you how. This world is not my home . . . I am just passing through. And are we not glad we KNOW that.

John wrote all of this for one reason - not to make us nervous about where we stand . . . but so that OUR joy - not somebody else’s joy, but ours - could be full, and could keep standing full. Every hard verse that is coming in this letter is aimed at that same target. God is after our CUP - and He means to keep it full.

The last eyewitness wrote it down for one reason - so that our joy might be full.

The deep study on these four verses - where we open up the Greek and say some of these words out loud - is Wednesday, October 7. Bring a pencil.

Please consider what you heard this evening.

Scripture Used

1 John 1:1-4 · Luke 24:39 · 1 Corinthians 2:9 · 1 Corinthians 3:15 · John 15:11 (all KJV)

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

The Ten Commandments, the Spirit’s Interpretation, and the Life of Faith

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday morning service, September 27, 2026 God’s Law, Lesson 4 of 4 (series finale) · A3 D12 · Mark 7:13 · Exodus 20 · 1 John 3:15 · Matthew 5:28 · Romans 7:7 · John 8:36

► Watch this lesson on video (56:43)

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You might want to mark a few places this morning - Mark 7, Exodus 20, First John 3, Matthew 5, Romans 7, and John 8.

Now we have spent the last four Sunday mornings building ONE picture - and this morning we are going to step back and look at the whole thing at once. This is the last lesson in our little series on the Ten Commandments. We started by settling WHO it is that makes the law we live by - God made everything in the universe, so God has the RIGHT to make the laws that govern His creation. Then we asked WHY God ever drew a boundary line at all - why He built a fence around forbidden trees and forbidden behavior . . . and we found that these fences were never put up as a cage to trap His people, but to keep His people ALIVE - to keep them safe. It is no different than the fence around a pasture. Somebody says those cattle are penned in - no, that fence is keeping those cattle off the highway so they do not get run over. And last Sunday we asked HOW these boundaries get off the page and down into us . . . and we learned that it is the Bible that draws the line - this is forbidden, this is safe - and it is the Spirit of God that takes that line and writes it on the table of our heart.

So this morning we are going to look at those ten boundary lines one more time. We have already looked at them on the LOVE side - they were given out of love. We have looked at them on the FENCE side - here is why this tree was forbidden. But this morning we are going to look at them on the INSIDE . . . we are going to watch what the Holy Spirit does with each one of these commandments when He gets it down past our head and lays it on our HEART.

And here is why that matters. A person can say all ten of these commandments by memory - and attend church three days a week for fifty years - and still be building his OWN righteousness instead of practicing God’s righteousness in the life he lives. You see, the Bible is not just a book we are supposed to read . . . the Bible is like a PERSON we have a relationship with - and it is either a good relationship, or a lukewarm one. It is a whole lot like a neighbor. We know that neighbor by sight - but do we have any kind of relationship with him? Do we really KNOW him, or do we just holler “how you doing,” “oh, fine,” and go on our separate ways? A lot of times that is exactly how we treat the Bible. Because the difference between religion and faith is really not that complicated - religion is what READS the ten commandments, the way we recognize a neighbor on the street . . . and faith is what lets the Spirit APPLY those commandments to our lives. And when the Spirit applies a commandment, it stops being just a rule on a list . . . and it starts being a LIFE.

God drew the line - Jesus paid the penalty for our crossing it - and the Spirit shows us how to live INSIDE it.

The Fence They Moved

Now let us look at the DANGER that religion carries - because there is a way to hold all ten of these commandments in our hand and still completely miss God. The Pharisees did exactly that - they knew the scriptures backward and forward, and they did not know God at all . . . and I will tell you, there are still Pharisees out in the world, and sitting in a good many of our churches, who know a great deal about the Book and very little about the Lord of the Book.

Last Sunday we read Romans chapter ten - a sincere people, a people who were ON FIRE for God . . . and Paul said that in spite of all that zeal, they were “going about to establish their own righteousness.” Like Goldilocks and those three chairs - this one too hard, this one too soft - they spent their whole lives building a righteousness cut to fit exactly what they were willing to do . . . and when they finally got it JUST right, tailored to their own preferences, they turned around and called it God’s righteousness. And there are people who church-shop the very same way - this church too hard, that church too soft, on and on until they find one that suits them . . . and the ones who cannot find any that suits them go out and start their own. Now that is not some Jewish problem that died off two thousand years ago . . . that is a church-house problem, alive and well TODAY. A righteousness that is measured by what we are comfortable with - shaped by the way our family has always done it - set to whatever our conscience made peace with a long time ago . . . that is OUR righteousness, and it is not God’s. And just a reminder - the Bible says a conscience can be seared over, like a callus, until the thing that used to bother us does not bother us much at all anymore.

The Pharisees were the most careful religious men of their day, and Jesus looked square at them and said they were guilty of -

“Making the word of God of none effect (no power - the power of God cancelled clean out) through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.” - Mark 7:13 (KJV)

They never tore a single page out of the Book . . . they just kept ADJUSTING it - a little here, a little there - until the word of God had no effect on them at all. That reminds me of a property line. We call ourselves landmark Baptists, and one of the reasons is that we believe a truth is like a boundary line, and we do everything we can to stay on the right side of it. Now property lines MATTER - they are not suggestions. Those surveyor stakes mark exactly where our land stops and the neighbor’s land starts. But picture a neighbor who moves the fence just a few feet - not often, just every couple of years, never enough for anybody to notice - until finally it lines up right where he WANTS it. And can you not see a lot of churches drifting in exactly that direction? Then one day we walk the line, and it is nowhere close to where the survey says it ought to be. That is a man moving his righteousness to fit his preferences . . . and notice - the fence always moves the SAME direction: toward whatever requires LESS of him. The survey stakes never moved. God’s word has not moved a single inch since the Garden of Eden . . . it was the FENCE that moved.

So the cure for a homemade righteousness is to SUBMIT to God’s righteousness - and that starts the moment we let the Spirit, and not our comfort and not our tradition, tell us what God’s word actually says. I will tell you something about myself - I have started a little practice as I go through the scriptures . . . this is what I have always thought - all right, now let us lay that down next to what the Book actually SAYS. Just because I am a preacher and I think a thing, that does not make it gospel. We are every one of us liable to have been taught something wrong - not on purpose. I think the world of my mama and daddy - always have - but they are not where knowledge ends, and there are a few little things they had not quite exactly right. We have to be man enough to erase a thought just because it is what we have always been handed, and set it down beside the scriptures . . . because God’s word is a great deal more important than mine, or my parents’, or my grandparents’.

Ten Rooms - the Spirit on the Inside

Now here is how the Spirit works a commandment - He never adds one thing to it . . . He asks us a QUESTION about it, and the question He asks goes straight past what we DO, and lands on what we LOVE.

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

On the surface that one looks easy - I can about promise nobody in this room bowed down to a wooden idol this week. But the Spirit asks - what got our FIRST thought this morning? What would we give up nearly anything to protect? Anything that sits in the place that belongs to God IS a god . . . and it can be carved out of fear, or ambition, or comfort, or pride. The Spirit shows us the gods we never knew we had.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing . . .” - Exodus 20:4 (KJV)

The Spirit takes that one to the picture of God we carry around in our MINDS. A great many believers have built themselves a god who never convicts, never asks anything hard, never says NO - a comfortable god, cut to fit, just like Goldilocks liked her chair . . . and the Spirit says that god is an idol too. Jesus shows us the Father the way He actually IS - not a false picture of Him, and not the softened-up version we would rather have.

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain . . .” - Exodus 20:7 (KJV)

Yes - a curse word breaks this one . . . but the Spirit goes deeper than the mouth. When a man says “I am a Christian,” and then turns around and treats people with cruelty and contempt, he has hung God’s NAME on a life that brings God shame - and that is taking His name in vain too, in the daily things we do and say. Love is supposed to be the badge that marks us out as His . . . and if we are not wearing that badge, we are claiming to be something we are not.

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” - Exodus 20:8 (KJV)

Holy means set apart - separate, special. Now we do not keep the Jewish sabbath - but the Spirit takes the PRINCIPLE and asks about the Lord’s Day. Is Sunday actually set apart . . . or has the week crowded in until Sunday is just one more thing to get through? If we DREAD Sunday, we have missed the whole point - I never yet met a soul who dreaded Saturday. And here is a personal word from your pastor - the Bible does say the ox falls in the ditch now and then . . . but the extra load of laundry, mowing the yard, washing the car - those do not qualify as an ox in the ditch. The commandments are not suggestions.

“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land . . .” - Exodus 20:12 (KJV)

The Spirit applies this one to us grown folks too - the way we speak OF our parents, the way we speak TO them . . . and He carries it right on over to the way we treat every person of authority God has set over us, including the ones He set over us in His church. Think about an inheritance. A farmer works his whole life building his place - the land, the cattle, the barns . . . and the child who honors that work, who stays close, who shows up when there is work to be done - that is the child who comes into the inheritance. The child who stays gone, who always has somewhere else to be when there are fences that need mending, and only comes around when it suits him - that child loses more than a relationship . . . he loses the LEGACY. Honor is not a feeling - honor is a position we take . . . and the Spirit shows us whether we are honoring, or whether we are just tolerating. And I will say this plainly, because I have seen it - I have heard grandchildren speak to their grandparents in a tone I would only use to correct a misbehaving dog. There is no excuse for it - it is one hundred percent wrong, and if a thing can be more than one hundred percent wrong, this is it. Now I know I move slow . . . I know I say “would you say that again, I did not catch it” often enough to wear a young person out . . . I know I forget things, and my mind does not hit on all the cylinders it once did. But God has not ASKED the young person to be respectful to his elders - God has COMMANDED it.

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

Now that one is like the first - we read it and think, well, I passed that with flying colors . . . did we? Let us hear the Spirit speak through the last apostle, in the very book we are going to open tonight -

“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” - 1 John 3:15 (KJV)

Murder starts as hatred . . . hatred starts as unforgiveness . . . and unforgiveness starts as a wound we refused to carry to God. The Spirit asks whether we have taken a life from somebody - not with a gun, but with our words, our silence, our contempt, or our flat refusal to forgive. Now I will be the first to admit, forgiving is not always easy, and it is something I have to work at, and I doubt I am the only one. We may not be able to forgive TODAY - that is only human. The danger is not in the struggle . . . the danger is in NOT WANTING to forgive - not even trying, not even praying for the strength. If we WANT to, and we keep on trying and keep on praying, we will find that forgiveness in time . . . and then this verse will not apply to us at all.

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

“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” - Matthew 5:28 (KJV)

The Spirit takes this one from what we DO to what we look AT - what we turn loose in the imagination, what comes in through our screens. And here is a personal word - I have stood out in the church parking lot and heard folks going on about a movie . . . “oh, that was a good one - if you could just look past the language.” Excuse me - what are we doing watching something like that? Is somebody holding a gun to our head? We are turning entertainment loose over a “thou shalt not” - and the Bible says even the appearance of foolishness is sin. A picture-house full of raw language is a good deal MORE than the appearance of foolishness . . . that is sin right out in the open, and we ought to be ashamed. Now we stump our toe and a word slips out we should not have said - we are human. But when we sit ourselves down in front of it on purpose, that is us saying we value our entertainment over our obedience.

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

A paycheck for work we did not do . . . credit for another man’s work . . . and holding back from God what belongs to God - the firstfruits of our income, the service due the Man who died for us, the worship that puts God in His honored place. That last kind of stealing is perfectly LEGAL - and it is still wrong.

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

A false witness does not have to tell a bald-faced lie - he can ruin a brother with a HALF-truth . . . a rumor passed on . . . a story with just enough left OUT to paint the wrong picture. So the Spirit asks us before we ever open our mouths - is it true? is it kind? does it protect . . . or does it tear down?

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

Now this is the one that convicted Paul himself - listen to him -

“I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust (wanting what is not ours - coveting), except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” - Romans 7:7 (KJV)

We cannot pass a law against WANTING - not even God does that - and no jury on earth can see what a man covets . . . but the Spirit can, and He does. He takes this commandment to our CONTENTMENT, and shows us every place where envy and comparison have quietly begun to take root. It is a mistake to judge what we have by what somebody else has - that is trouble just waiting to happen.

Ten commandments - ten rooms of a life . . . and the Spirit walks through every one of those rooms and asks about our motives, our habits, our PRIVATE world. That is the whole difference - religion checks the boxes on the OUTSIDE . . . faith lets the Spirit go to work on the INSIDE. Religion is recognition - faith is application.

God drew the line - Jesus paid the penalty for our crossing it - and the Spirit shows us how to live INSIDE it.

Which one of the ten did the Spirit stop us on just now? Not the one we passed . . . the one that got QUIET down in here.

Free - Not Guilty

Now some of us hear a lesson like this and feel HEAVY - the more we understand of what God requires, the more impossible the whole thing looks. So let us hear what Jesus said -

“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (really and truly free).” - John 8:36 (KJV)

FREE. Not “guilty” - free . . . because when the Spirit shows us where the line is, He shows us where the MERCY is in the very same breath. When the Spirit convicts of sin, He points straight at the One who FORGIVES sin. He is not prosecuting us - He is turning us loose from the lie that we are doing just fine when we are not . . . and setting us free out of the prison of our own homemade righteousness. When the Spirit convicts, He is opening a door - not slamming one. The man who is convicted and confesses walks out a FREE man . . . but the man who hardens himself against the Spirit stays bound - not by God, but by his own refusal to give in.

Say it plainly for the tender one listening - the Spirit’s conviction is a Father’s hand on a child, not a prosecutor building his case. Nobody in Christ loses his standing over a commandment he stumbled on this week . . . the blood already settled the crossing of that line. Conviction is for cleaning up - not for casting out.

The Life of Faith Is a Continuing

Now we have come a long way in these twelve lessons - from what a Christian IS, through Christian love, through fellowship with God, and now here, to the law of God, revealed in His Word and applied by His Spirit. And here is where it all lands. Last Sunday we closed on “if ye continue in my word” . . . and the whole Christian life, in one word, is seen in CONTINUING. Continue in the Word. Continue letting the Spirit apply it. Continue turning our own standard IN for God’s standard . . . continue in the honest, humble, daily posture of somebody who KNOWS he crosses the line - and keeps coming back to the grace that covers the crossing.

The life of faith is the life that keeps saying YES - yes to the Word, yes to the Spirit, yes to the God who drew that line in the first place . . . because He loved us far too much to leave us on the wrong side of it.

God drew the line. Jesus paid the penalty for our crossing it. And the Spirit shows us how to live inside it. This is the gospel - and this is the Christian life.

Now maybe somebody here has been moving the fence for years and calling it right with God . . . the stakes never moved, and the Son can set us free this morning. And maybe somebody else is already saved - but plumb worn out from checking boxes . . . let the Spirit have the INSIDE. We will never do it one hundred percent - it is not possible. But I will tell you, I once knew a person who claimed to be saved and told me flat out he did not even want to do right . . . and it is a fearful thing - it is bad to fail, but it is a dangerous thing to quit even caring.

Please consider what you heard this morning.

Scripture Used

Mark 7:13 · Exodus 20:3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 · 1 John 3:15 · Matthew 5:28 · Romans 7:7 · John 8:36 (all KJV)

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Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.

When the Answer Is No

The hardest question in this whole study . . . and the Bible does not flinch from it.

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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.

I made a promise about this one from the pulpit back in September, and I have been turning it over ever since . . . because this IS NOT a study question . . . somebody reading this has a chair in the house that nobody sits in any more.

So we are not going to be tidy about it. We are going to go get the Book and see what it says about the prayer that was prayed and prayed . . . and the answer was NO.

THE BIBLE DOES NOT FLINCH

Here is the first thing worth noticing, before we look at one verse . . . it would have been the EASIEST THING in this world for the Bible to hand us nothing but prayers that got a yes . . . and it does not do that.

It hands us four men who asked and did not get it . . . and one of them is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

PAUL — a NO with the reason attached

2 Corinthians 12:7 — “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.”

Now look at one word in that verse before we go on. The thorn was GIVEN to him. Paul does not say the thorn happened to him . . . he does not say the thorn slipped past God while He was looking somewhere else . . . it was GIVEN.

2 Corinthians 12:8–9 — “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Three times . . . this is a man who had raised the dead and been caught up into the third heaven, and he asked three times for one thing to be taken away . . . and God told him NO, and then God did something we ought to notice — He told him WHY.

Paul never did get the thing he asked for . . . what he got instead was God . . . and by the end of the chapter he is saying he would rather have it THIS way. Whatever that thorn was, Paul went to his grave glad about the answer.

DAVID — a NO with a grave at the end of it

This one is harder, because a child dies in it.

2 Samuel 12:16 — “David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.”

Seven days he stayed down there on the ground . . . and on the seventh day the child died . . . and now watch the servants, because they tell us something about how a man is expected to take a NO:

2 Samuel 12:18 — “And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?”

They were AFRAID to tell him . . . they fully expected the man to come apart . . . and here is what he did instead:

2 Samuel 12:20 — “Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.”

He got up . . . he washed his face . . . and he went to the house of the LORD and he WORSHIPPED. And when they asked him how in the world he could do that, he gave them the plainest answer in the Book:

2 Samuel 12:22–23 — “And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

Two things in there and both of them will hold a man up. One — he prayed as long as there was any hope at all, and when the answer came he did not stand there and argue with God about it. Two — “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” That is not a man giving up . . . that is hope with an ADDRESS on it. David knew where that baby was, and he knew he was going there himself.

THE LORD HIMSELF — the prayer that was refused

And now the one that settles it for good.

Matthew 26:39 — “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

“If it be possible.” It was NOT possible . . . and the cup did NOT pass. The Son of God asked His Father for something in the garden and the answer was no.

Now put this verse beside it, because it is one of the most important verses in this whole study:

Hebrews 5:7 — “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;”

And was HEARD. He was heard . . . and the answer was STILL no. So let nobody ever tell you again – that a prayer which did not get what it asked for – was a prayer that God did not hear.

LAZARUS — the NO that was a “not yet”

There is one more, and it is the tenderest of the four . . . two sisters send word to the Lord about their brother – and John gives us three verses in a row that ought to be read together:

John 11:3–6 — “Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.”

Read those in order and do not soften it. He LOVED them . . . and He WAITED. John put those two facts in the same breath on purpose – because he knew we would need them in the same breath.

And when the Lord FINALLY got there, Martha met Him with the sentence every one of us would have spoken – if we had been in Martha’s shoes…

John 11:21 — “Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”

He did not scold her for saying it. He did not correct her . . . and a few verses later - standing at a grave He was about to open – the Bible says the shortest and heaviest thing it ever says:

John 11:35 — “Jesus wept.”

He knew EXACTLY what He was fixing to do . . . and He cried anyway . . . so whatever else we learn about a NO; we can settle this much – it does not come from a God who is unmoved by what it costs us.

THREE THINGS A “NO” IS NOT

One — it is NOT PROOF He did not hear. Hebrews 5:7 already settled that one. He was heard, and the cup did not pass.

Two — it is NOT PUNISHMENT. Paul's thorn was given to keep him from being lifted up in pride, and not to pay him back for anything. A NO is not God settling an account with us.

Three — and hear this one carefully — it is NOT a failure of our faith . . . nobody in the history of this world has ever prayed with more faith than the Lord Jesus in that garden . . . and the answer was still no… So when somebody tells a grieving mother that her baby would have lived if she had believed a little harder – that person is handling the Book wrong – and he is laying a load on a back that is already carrying more than it can hold... Do not let anybody EVER do that to you – and do not ever do it to anybody else.

WHAT WE ARE GIVEN INSTEAD OF THE REASON

Now here is where I have to be honest with you . . . most of the time we are not told why. Paul got told – we usually DO NOT...

Deuteronomy 29:29 — “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

There are TWO PILES in that verse, and we have to learn to live with the size of them – The SECRET things are His . . . & the REVEALED things are ours . . . and a great deal of what we most want to know about a NO is sitting over in His pile.

Isaiah 55:8–9 — “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

And then there is the verse everybody quotes at a funeral, and it is a good verse — but it is worth reading slowly – because most of us hear it wrong:

Romans 8:28 — “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.”

It does not say that everything IS good . . . it says all things WORK TOGETHER FOR good . . . and there is a world of difference between these two.

Illustration — What Is On The Counter. Set out what goes into a cake before IT IS a cake – Raw flour – A raw egg – Baking soda – A spoon of bitter vanilla… Not one of those things is any good BY ITSELF and a couple of them will turn your stomach . . . but they are not FINISHED yet, and they are not meant to be eaten off the counter one at a time . . . they are meant to go in the oven TOGETHER – Romans 8:28 does not ask us to call the raw egg good . . . it tells us Who is doing the mixing.

FROM THE PULPIT

We could look at that prayer for good health — that prayer to never hear the word CANCER. I have been really — really sick — literally to the point of death . . . and I will tell you the honest truth. You can say what you want . . . you can say you love God . . . you can say that you depend upon God — but until you see that SINGLE set of footprints in the sands of life – realizing that Jesus did not desert you in your hour of need – but that He in fact CARRIED you in your hour of need — your relationship with Him will be less than it would be otherwise.

So is sickness a good thing? All by itself the answer is no – it is not a good thing — but then neither is a raw egg a good thing all by itself... Sickness may not be a good thing . . . but what sickness teaches us is priceless – and what sickness does to our relationship with God is not a thing that can be bought or purchased any other way… Good health every day of our life would be a fine thing to experience — but there are things that sickness taught me – about leaning on God that good health never would have.

And here is where I want us to think about ETERNITY – because this is the part most of us never consider... Paul says there are things waiting for us that we cannot even imagine…

1 Corinthians 2:9 — “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

Read WHO those things are prepared for — “them that LOVE him.” Now put that beside what Paul says two chapters later about the day our work is tried by fire:

1 Corinthians 3:12–15 — “Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”

Every one of us who is saved gets THERE — that is settled – and nothing in this life can undo it… But not every one of us gets there having built with the same material . . . one man's work stands and he receives a reward, and another man's work burns and he suffers loss . . . YES – he IS saved – but he stands there with empty hands.

That is what I mean about eternity – If we never learn to love Him — and hard things are one of the ways He teaches us TO love Him — then we will get to heaven and MISS OUT on things we could have received – Not lose our salvation – But miss a reward. There will be things prepared for them that love Him – that we simply will not have, because we NEVER let Him build that love into us down here.

So “a no” on this earth may be God trading us wood and hay for gold… To work together for our good does not mean that every step on the road of our life WILL BE GOOD.

SO WHAT DO WE DO WITH A NO?

One — keep praying while there is anything to pray about… David fasted and wept as long as that child was alive – and he was right to . . . “who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me.” We are not told the outcome ahead of time, and we are not supposed to pray as if we KNEW the outcome…

Two — then get up and go worship . . . that is the hardest sentence in this whole part – and I am not going to pretend otherwise… But David washed his face and went to the house of the LORD . . . and the man who does that is going to “make it” – or continue to live IN FAITH – BUT the man who lies on the ground in anger or bitterness – he will be man who will not continue living in faith...

Three — quit demanding the reason. The secret things belong to Him – We can ask . . . but we cannot make the asking A CONDITION of our trust, because that is not trust at all — that is a trade.

Four — take the grace that IS being offered. God did not give Paul the thing he asked for… He gave him something – and He named it… “my grace is sufficient for thee.”

That grace is on the table for us too . . . and a man can starve to death with food right in front of him – if he refuses to eat it because it is NOT the meal he ordered.

Five — do not let it TURN to bitterness . . . this is the one I worry about the most . . . when the answer is no – we will either believe that God is good and we could not see the whole of it . . . OR we will get bitter — and bitterness will walk a man right out of the faith and take his family with him.

Job 13:15 — “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.”

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

A NO from God – is NOT a failure of prayer . . . and it is NOT the silence of a God who was not listening . . . it is an ANSWER — given by a Father who loves us – out of a wisdom that is as far above ours as the heavens are above this earth – and we are simply not able to read it yet from where we are standing.

Paul got his answer explained to him… David did not – and he worshipped anyway… Martha got hers explained four days late – at a graveside . . . and the Lord Jesus got a NO in the garden – so that we could have a YES that lasts forever.

Simple truth: God has NEVER one time told a child of His no – out of anything except love . . . and one day we will have the WHOLE of it explained – and when that time comes - there is not going to be a one of us – who would wish He had answered differently.

TRY IT THIS WEEK

If you are carrying a NO right now – do the David thing . . . and do it in this order... Wash your face – Go to the house of the LORD – Worship BEFORE you understand.

And if you are NOT carrying “a no” this week — then find somebody who is – and go sit with them . . . you do not have to explain anything to them – Job's friends did fine for seven days – right up until they opened their mouths.

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NEXT — Part Five: Lord, Teach Us to Pray. The disciples watched Him pray every day for three years, and what they finally asked Him for was lessons. So He gave them a pattern . . . and it is not the chant most people have made of it.

The Go That Never Stops — What the Great Commission Commands

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Wednesday evening service, September 23, 2026 The Great Commission · Matthew 28:18-20 · Matthew 10:7 · Acts 8:1 · Acts 13:2 · 1 Peter 3:15

► Watch this lesson on video (43:20)

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This evening we are going to talk about the Great Commission . . . and if we were going to give a title to the lesson, it would be “The Go That Never Stops.” And I will tell you up front - I am going to be man enough to admit some mistakes that I have made about this passage in the past. I am not going to hide my error and sweep it under the rug . . . I am just going to come right out and say it - I was WRONG about this.

Now this is the kind of question that anybody who has been in church for a while has at least thought about in his own mind. The Great Commission of Matthew 28 says GO. The church at Jerusalem was told to go - and history shows us that God even used persecution to pry them loose when they began to drag their feet. But the gospel has already arrived at Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church . . . we are HERE, and we have no other address. So where - and when - does the command in the Great Commission to GO stop governing us, and stop governing our church?

Well, some will answer that question the way I did before I learned better. I have been quoted in the past as saying the Greek really says “as you are going” - so it is not really a command that we reach back and bring into our present day. Or we could answer the question with a guilt trip, and say that every believer who does not pack his bags and move to a foreign country to do mission work is being disobedient - after all, the command does say GO. But neither one of these is entirely correct based upon the scriptures.

So what we are going to do this evening is let the grammar (the original Greek) . . . and history . . . and the Bible itself answer this question. When we answer it, this is not what your preacher thinks - and this is not what some commentary thinks. By the way, in case anybody is interested, I do not use commentaries . . . We have been learning that it is the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things if we are really interested - not a school, not a seminary, not an education. Now somebody will say, well preacher, you are just saying that because you have never been to the seminary - no, I am saying it because that is what the Bible says. I do not care if you take a person who is as dumb as a box of rocks - if he will humble his heart before God, he can outshine any Bible scholar that has ever been born . . . because it is the Holy Spirit - and the Holy Spirit is who we do not give enough CREDIT to. You will notice that the authors of MOST of the commentaries that are available – do not have the same type of Baptism that we have in this church… They do have education – but outside of proper baptism – they do not have “spiritual education”. Well, that rabbit caught my attention - let’s go back to the text.

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power (authority) is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach (make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” - Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV)

So we are talking this evening about the GO that never stops . . . it does not stop - but it does change address.

The GO never stops - but it does change address . . . and today the GO is living at OUR address here in Dardanelle.

What the Greek Actually Commands

Now the grammar is going to tell us what the Greek actually commands - not what we think it is saying, and not what we have always been told it is saying, but what it ACTUALLY says.

The word “teach” in verse nineteen is mathēteusate (ma-thay-TYOO-sah-teh) - and it literally means MAKE DISCIPLES. And here is what I discovered from the grammar first . . . the verb “teach” is the only command-form verb in the whole Commission. So the center of gravity in the Great Commission - if you will - is not packing our bags to travel . . . the center of gravity is DISCIPLE-MAKING. Baptizing and teaching are how the disciple-making gets done.

However - the command to make disciples does not make the GO optional . . . and here is where a common mistake is often made - and I know this because I am one who has made it. Some say the text really reads “as you are going.” But the fact is, “Go ye” is poreuthentes (por-yoo-THEN-tess) - a finished-action form of the verb - and it is standing right in front of a command. And in the Greek, when you have this form standing right in front of a command, that is a very common pattern – and it means that the going is what takes on the FORCE of the command it is standing in front of. GO - and make disciples.

Well preacher, how is the church supposed to make disciples? By GOING with the gospel into other places.

Now this is not something we have to guess about, because Matthew uses this exact same construction several different times. For instance - seven verses before our text, we see an angel at the empty tomb:

“And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.” - Matthew 28:7 (KJV)

Now those women at the tomb were standing STILL . . . the word is what created the going. They were basically being told - leave here, and GO tell the disciples. And that is the same form that we find in the Great Commission.

And here is the clincher - Matthew KNEW how to say “as you are going” . . . and he used it when he meant it. Go to Matthew chapter ten, and there is the exact phrase that I mistakenly attached to the GO in the Great Commission:

“And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” - Matthew 10:7 (KJV)

“As ye go” is poreuomenoi (por-yoo-OM-en-oy) - and I know I am butchering the pronunciation, but that is the way it is . . . this is the ONGOING form of the verb, as opposed to the finished form. Now Matthew had both tools available to him - and at the Commission, when he was recording the Great Commission, he picked up the COMMANDED go. That is what the Bible indicates.

So - the grammar gives us both of the truths we are talking about this evening, and each truth is found in its own verse. In Matthew 28 the going is genuinely COMMANDED - just like the ladies at the tomb. Leave here and go tell the disciples that you have seen Jesus . . . leave Jerusalem, God told the church, and go to these other places and tell them the gospel. If you picture a horse carrying a rider - the command to go is like a rider that has hopped up on the back of a horse named MAKE DISCIPLES . . . the going is literally riding on the back of make disciples. And in Matthew 10 there is also an “as ye go” - which is what I have in the past mistakenly assumed was the same kind of command we find in the Great Commission . . . but it is NOT.

Comfort, a Crowbar, and Antioch

For several chapters of the book of Acts, the Jerusalem church stayed HOME - stayed right where it was first established. Thousands were saved . . . the apostles were busy preaching . . . and everything was comfortable for them. Now what I am describing is their comfort zone - and it all took place in the one city where they were commanded to START . . . the one city they were commanded to go FROM, instead of hibernating and staying in their comfort zone the way they had.

“And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.” - Acts 8:1 (KJV)

Now I noticed the fact that they were all scattered abroad - the church and everybody - “EXCEPT the apostles.” The men who had actually been commanded to go and make disciples were the LAST ones to leave. And God used persecution as a crowbar, for lack of a better example, to pry the church loose from the place where obedience had begun to drag its feet.

But here is the part that actually answers our question. When does the GO stop - or does it stop? If we follow those who were scattered by the persecution from Jerusalem, we will follow them to a church at ANTIOCH - a city that had received the gospel as a direct result of the persecution against the church at Jerusalem. You see, Antioch was a church that had already arrived . . . just like our church in Dardanelle is a church that has already arrived.

“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.” - Acts 13:2 (KJV)

Now Antioch became a SENDING church. If you read about all that Antioch did, it is looked on in just about all your research material as the place where missionary work actually began. The arrival of those who had been persecuted at Jerusalem did not allow the church they went to - to retire the Great Commission . . . but what it did do is to make that church a new STARTING place.

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” - Matthew 24:14 (KJV)

So - the GO is not something that stops when the gospel reaches our country, or our state - it only stops when the end of the age finds us.

Now I believe it is landmark number seventeen - of “those things most surely believed among us” (I think there are twenty-one of them). We believe that Jesus Christ established His church during His personal ministry on earth . . . we believe that the church is in a covenant relationship with Jesus to carry out the Great Commission . . . and we believe that Jesus Christ gave the Great Commission to the New Testament CHURCHES only. Now notice - in this landmark of what we believe, it is not church singular, it is the plural form, CHURCHES. So our own landmark number seventeen pretty much settles the question of whether the Great Commission was given only to the church at Jerusalem, or to other churches in addition to that first church at Jerusalem.

The GO never stops - it does change address . . . and the GO in the Great Commission is living at OUR address today.

That is the second time I have said it - and remember the significance of saying something three different times . . . the third time means it is PERMANENT. The Go we are talking about has never stopped being in effect, and it still governs our church here in Dardanelle.

The Rope - How an Arrived Church Goes

So if the GO governs our church, like I am saying it does - then what does the GO look like for a church whose members are settled in the community and obviously are not going anywhere?

Well, I thought about a rope - and I think I have mentioned in a lesson or two before how “a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). The GO of an arrived church - a church that already has the gospel and is not going anywhere - is just like a cord with three strands . . . and we are already holding all three strands of that cord in our church this evening.

The first strand is SENT. Every month this church sends money to the Philippine Islands to support young churches/pastors on the islands – in their efforts to spread the gospel.

“Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” - Philippians 4:17 (KJV)

Now the key phrase in this verse is “your ACCOUNT.” When those missionaries in the Philippines stand at the judgment seat of Christ - fruit from the islands of the Philippines, fruit that you and I have never laid eyes on . . . at least part of the fruit of their labors will be credited to OUR ledger in the judgment. Whether it is a missionary, or whether they have organized into a regular church - that is all beside the point.

Part of our name is MISSIONARY Baptist - and that is one of the reasons we claim to be Missionary Baptists instead of some other kind of Baptist, because there is no board that directs us regarding what missions we should support and what ones we should not. Again, it goes back to that Holy Spirit that we so often do not give proper credit to . . . the Holy Spirit is who leads us and guides us to endeavors like this. So the sender GOES in the sent, if that makes any sense . . . this is Antioch’s strand of the cord - and we hold ‘that particular strand’ in our hand every month - when we send support to the Philippines.

The second strand is SHOWN. Now this might make us uncomfortable, but it is the truth - every single member of this local church is on display before this town every single week. We are on display if we go to the co-op . . . if we are at a ball game, or at the funeral home, or in the checkout line at Walmart or wherever - we are ON DISPLAY.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” - Matthew 5:16 (KJV)

This is Matthew chapter ten’s strand - this one actually fits the “as ye go” phrase. The world reads a church the same way it reads a lighthouse. I mentioned in a previous lesson that a lighthouse does not fire cannons - it does not make a lot of noise to call attention to the light shining up at the top . . . a lighthouse just SHINES. Well, our church is to be a lighthouse in this community - we are told to shine, and the shining is what saves men from the rocks.

And that leads us to the third strand - SPOKEN. This is the strand that actually finishes the three-strand rope we are talking about, because the people who are on display - the church members - have to be ready to SPEAK.

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” - 1 Peter 3:15 (KJV)

Be ready always to what? To give an ANSWER. Now notice the order - the shown life is what brings on the question . . . and if our lives are on display, then according to First Peter 3:15, our mouth needs to be ready to do something.

“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” - Romans 10:14 (KJV)

Faith comes by HEARING. Now I think it is fair to say that a lost person is probably not going to be saved simply by watching how kind a Christian is to other people. Watching that Christian’s behavior will no doubt get the lost person’s attention - but for him to seek Jesus as his Saviour, there is probably going to have to be some talk going back and forth . . . there is going to have to be an explanation of WHY we as Christians are being kind to those who are not kind to us in return. A lighthouse is what draws a ship close to the shore - but somebody still has to explain where the harbor is. Yes, I see the light on the lighthouse over there, and I will go toward it . . . but somebody needs to tell me where I need to dock this boat once I get past these rocks.

So there are three strands - and if we braid these three strands together, then the Great Commission is still ALIVE, even in a church like ours. Now the rope does not break the very instant we cut one of the strands - a three-strand rope with one strand cut is still going to hold for a while. So the church that cuts a strand does not fall apart that same Sunday afternoon . . . but the rope is strained, and it continues to fray - and it may take several YEARS before it finally snaps and the whole thing falls apart.

So let’s cut each one of the three, one at a time, and look at what will happen.

Cut the SENT strand - we are just not going to send anybody anything. Well, after it is cut, we can still behave the way we should behave . . . and we can still answer anyone who asks what the reason is - that we have the kind of faith that we do. But if we cut the sent strand, the Great Commission takes on a PERMANENT address. It basically stops - it is not carried any further. The Great Commission goes exactly as far as our conduct can be seen, and only as far as our lips can be heard . . . part of Yell County, maybe a little bit over into Pope County and a little bit into Logan County - and that would be the permanent address of the Great Commission.

Now cut the SHOWN strand. You remember we talked previously about how our behavior is the badge that we wear - it identifies us as Christians . . . love, even for those who do not love us in return. This is the one that really does the most damage - because now we are still sending money across the ocean to the Philippines, and we are still ready to talk the talk . . . but when we open our mouth on Sunday about the Lord, what we said at work on Tuesday is LOUDER than what we are saying in church. You see what that means? The Philippines gets a missionary - and Dardanelle gets a hypocrite. That is just the plain truth . . . nobody is going to ask about a badge that they have already seen dragged through the mud. You see, if we cannot get along with one another, how in the world are we expected to get along with those out in the world? If I cannot get along with Brother Kenneth, how in the world am I going to get along with my neighbor? I am supposed to love Kenneth - and I am supposed to love my neighbor too, but not to the same degree as we love those in the house of God.

Now let’s see what happens if we cut that third strand - the SPOKEN strand. I think most people would feel safest cutting this one, because after all, we are still giving money to the Philippines . . . and we are still living the way we should live, practicing love toward those who do not necessarily love us in return. But that is what gets us caught in a TRAP. We become a good, decent and quiet people that nobody ever gets closer to God around. The one who has been watching us - be ready always to give an answer to those who ask a reason of the hope that is in us - that individual finally works up the nerve to ask . . . and all we can think to do is to talk about the weather, or talk about hunting season. He walked right up to the door of the gospel - and we never OPENED the door.

Now of the three strands - which one is in our grip the loosest? Which one do we have a lighter grip on than the others?

I was raised - and I have always been taught – that you have the door knockers, but that you don’t want to force the gospel on anyone . . . and I think that intent is in the scriptures. Because we cannot get past First Peter 3:15. Now what does it say? It does not say go to the airport and witness to everybody you see - but if you are at the airport, be READY to answer. Why do you worship the way you do? Why do you have the faith that you do? Be ready to answer when someone sees a difference in the way you live your life than how they live their life. And that is kind of what got me off the truth about “as you are going” . . . I thought, well, as I go through life I will be a witness - and when somebody recognizes Christ in my life, they will ask me. So - you can see how a man can make that mistake - but that is not how the Great Commission is written. Matthew knew exactly what that phrase was . . . he used it in Matthew chapter ten, and he did NOT use it in Matthew chapter twenty-eight.

Check Your Grip

So where does the command to GO actually stop governing us? Well, the answer is - it never stops being our responsibility to obey it.

The GO never stops - it changes address . . . and today the GO is living at OUR address.

And one last example - and I made a conscious effort to trim the length of my lessons, my first go at this one was a little bit longer, so I am just about done . . . the mail carrier does not stop his route because the mail has already gotten to HIS house. Oh, my mail is in the mailbox, I can just stop and go home - that is not the way it works. Even after he gets his mail, he still continues to deliver to others.

So our homework this week is aimed at the strand that most of us are holding the loosest - which is typically the last one, the talking part. This week, write out our answer on a piece of paper. Pretend someone has just asked - “explain to me why you have the faith that you do.” A little short paragraph, one or two sentences - it does not have to be elaborate. Write out the reason of the hope that is in our heart.

Write out what we were before God pulled us out of that pit . . . write out what the Lord did for us when we repented - that is a good reason to explain to somebody . . . and write out what God is to us. What I mean by that is - write out the kind of relationship that exists between us and God that gives us more PEACE than yielding to temptation gives us. I am just like anybody else - I do not have to read in the Bible that there are “the pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:25) . . . I know that. But I also know that a proper relationship with God outshines the pleasure that is found in sin.

When we get it written out, read it over and pray that it is ready to share with others - because somebody in this town has been watching our rope, and probably watching us longer than we are aware of. And the day that we are finally asked a reason for the hope that is within us is the WRONG day to start composing an answer. Be ready always . . . be ready BEFORE.

I do not know why - when we are asked about God or something spiritual, all of a sudden we get tongue-tied . . . but I could be asked what my favorite hobby is, or who my favorite quarterback is - oh, no hesitation at all, I could go on for days and days. So be ready - rehearse the answer. There is nothing wrong with that. We do not want to come across as being ashamed of God when somebody finally asks us about our relationship with God.

Scripture Used

Matthew 28:18-20 · Matthew 28:7 · Matthew 10:7 · Acts 8:1 · Acts 13:2 · Matthew 24:14 · Philippians 4:17 · Matthew 5:16 · 1 Peter 3:15 · Romans 10:14 · Ecclesiastes 4:12 · Hebrews 11:25 (all KJV)

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Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.

How to Read the Bible — Lesson 5: Let the Clear Explain the Deep

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE — a short course from Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church • Pastor Chuck Trusty • Lesson 5 of 13 • a new lesson every two weeks

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Last Time

Last lesson you took Matthew 6:24 home:

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." — Matthew 6:24

We handed you an odd word — mammon — and told you not to guess. Did you let the verse frame it? Read to the end, and the two masters are named: God, and mammon. Ask what the verse sets mammon against — God Himself. So mammon is the rival master: money and goods, served like a god — the verse handed you its shape. And do not miss the step you took: no man can serve two masters — and you have a new Master now. Now, one more tool.

The Verse

"Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil." — Hebrews 6:19

The Question

Look at that one word — hope. In our everyday talk it means we are not sure: "I hope it will not rain" — meaning, it might. So is our "anchor of the soul" anchored to a maybe? Is Bible hope a wish that might fail, or a sure thing?

The Tool — walked together

First, bring the tools you already have, and ask your questions — this is a statement, not a command, so we ask what it declares. WHO? "we" — every believer; if you are saved, this hope is yours. WHAT? Our hope is "an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast." WHEN? The verse gives no time — an empty box. It is not telling us when; it is telling us what we hold. WHERE? Read on to the last word, and the verse answers: "within the veil." Hold that word — it is the sweetest in the verse, and the study will open it. WHY? The verse does not say outright — another empty box, and so our shovel — but everyone knows what an anchor is for: the storm.

Every box accounted for. Now run the rest of the toolbox. You read the whole verse to its last word, and it gave up "within the veil." This is no command but a statement, so the address tool rests this time. And when the weight fell on one word — hope — the tool that says let the Bible define its own words sent you looking for it elsewhere; it turns up in Titus 1:2. That brings us to this lesson's new tool — the one that says which verse gets the final say. TOOL #5: when one verse is hard, stand a clear one beside it, and let the plain light explain the deep. (Not sure where the plain verse is? The Helper page shows how to find every verse that uses the same word.) Hebrews 6:19 is deep — anchor, veil. Titus 1:2 is plain as day:

"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." — Titus 1:2

There is the daylight. Our hope is "of eternal life," resting on a promise — made by a God "that cannot lie." The plain verse settles the deep one: Bible hope is no wish, but sure, because the One who promised cannot lie.

ONE WORD

So take that word HOPE and hold it: in the Bible it is not a wish that may fail, but a confident expectation — a thing certain. The world's hope is a coin in the air; the Bible's is an anchor set in rock.

And what is the anchor made fast to? It reaches "within the veil" — into the very presence of God. But do not assume what that veil is; let the Bible say it. Further on, the same letter tells us plainly: "the veil, that is to say, his flesh" (Hebrews 10:20). The veil is the flesh of the Lord Jesus. So your anchor is made fast to Christ Himself. That is why it holds: an anchor is only as sure as what it grips, and yours grips the Lord. Let the wind blow; the soul anchored there does not drift.

Try It This Week

Here is your verse. Bring your questions, and read the whole thing to its last word — and when a heavy phrase looms up, find the plain one standing right beside it:

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." — Luke 9:23

The heavy phrase is "take up his cross." It can frighten a new believer — it sounds like dying. But do not build on the shadow. Stand the plain words next to it, there in the same verse: "follow me." And one plain word more: "daily." So the great, heavy cross is explained by the plain command — follow Him, one ordinary day at a time. Not one grand and dreadful day, but this day, and then the next. That is how the cross is carried: by following.

Your Toolbox So Far

1. Start with the questions — WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY.   2. Read the whole verse — all the way to its last word.   3. Every command has an address — ask who it was spoken to.   4. Let the Bible define its own words — the Book is its own dictionary.   5. Clear explains complex — let a plain verse light up a deep one.

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Next lesson, in two weeks: a verse has neighbors — read the ones just before and just after, and a familiar saying turns out to mean more than we thought.

‹ Lesson 4 — Let the Bible Define Its Own Words  •  The Course Index — all lessons

How the Book Is Built — and Who It Is Addressed To

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday evening service, September 20, 2026 The Route 66 Journey · On-Ramp 2 · Psalm 147:19-20 · Romans 3:1-2 · Deuteronomy 5:3 · Romans 15:4 · 1 Corinthians 10:11

► Watch this lesson on video (49:32)

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A couple of Sundays ago I mentioned the Route 66 series - and what is behind that is my intention to preach at least one message on all sixty-six books of the Bible. We will get finished, assuming the Lord does not come back any time soon, because if you count up the Sundays it will take a year or two . . .

We said then that all sixty-six books of the Bible make one Book, one Author, one story - and the one story of the entire Bible is centered on JESUS CHRIST . . . well, this evening is like the second half of our introduction before we actually start the series, and I want to point out two things about the way the Bible is put together before we get started.

The first thing is the MAP we are going to follow - how all sixty-six books are organized, and why the way they are organized is not random at all . . . you can actually see a message in the way they are arranged. The second thing - and I started to say it is more important, but I do not guess it is . . . I think it is more MISUNDERSTOOD than anything else - is the ADDRESS. By that I mean who each half of the Bible, the Old Testament half and the New Testament half, has actually been written to - because we do not read a letter that was written to somebody else the same way we read a letter with our own name on the envelope.

If we understand, or begin to understand, just these two things this evening, then much of the confusion that many people have with the Bible is just going to evaporate.

So here is the thing I will say three times, and this is the first time - the Bible is one Book . . . it is built like a library, but it is addressed like a letter.

The Library Shelves - How the Bible Is Organized

A library has a bunch of shelves - and the Bible has sixty-six books in its library . . . now when they put the Bible together, they did not just randomly stick the books in there in the order we read them. They were put there for a PURPOSE.

The Old Testament is thirty-nine books, organized on four different shelves.

The first shelf holds THE LAW - the five books of Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They are called the books of Moses because they cover the times of Moses, and it is believed that Moses was the human author who put pen to paper . . . and these first five books are really important, because they are the FOUNDATION everything else rests on. Genesis tells us that God was in the beginning and explains creation - and if we get creation wrong, then we are just WRONG. “In the beginning God” . . . nothing else works, and nothing else can take the place of that one fact.

The second shelf is HISTORY - twelve books, beginning with Joshua and ending with Esther. Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, First and Second Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. These books tell us the story of the nation of Israel - the people God made all the promises to, from Genesis to Revelation . . . His chosen nation, the apple of His eye.

The third shelf is POETRY - five books. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. Where I was looking this up, it said these are often called the heart-books, and here is what is meant by that - in those five books we get an idea of how God’s people FEEL. We read where some of them are weeping. We read where some of them are rejoicing . . . and we read where they ask God some questions that are never really asked anywhere else in the scriptures.

Then we come to the fourth shelf, THE PROPHETS - seventeen books, from Isaiah all the way to Malachi. There are two sub-groups on this shelf, the major prophets and the minor prophets . . . now normally when we hear major and minor we think major is important and minor is not quite so important . . . but the major prophets are just LONGER, and the minor prophets are shorter. There is NO difference in importance. We will get there eventually, but Obadiah is one page - that is how long Obadiah is - and it is a minor prophet . . . then you look over at Isaiah . . . oh, mercy, it is sixty-six chapters, and some folks call Isaiah the little Bible for that reason - but major and minor have nothing to do with importance, because you cannot say that the one page of Obadiah is any less God’s Word than all the pages of Isaiah.

There is a lot of neat little trivia like that about the different books - not that there is anything trivial about the Bible - but for lack of a better word, a lot of interesting little things you can find out.

Now the other half of the Bible - the part we are most familiar with - is the New Testament. Twenty-seven books instead of thirty-nine . . . and again, four shelves, basically carbon copies of the four shelves in the Old Testament.

The first shelf is THE GOSPELS - four books. You have heard the expression “the harmony of the gospels.” The gospels are not word-for-word identical to each other, but the central figure in every one of them is JESUS CHRIST. Think of it this way - Jesus is standing in the middle of a room with four walls, and there is a window in each wall. If you look at Jesus through Matthew’s window, you see Him as the King. Through Mark’s window, you see Him as the Servant. Through Luke’s window, you see Him as the Son of man . . . and through John’s window, you see Him as the Son of God. Jesus is in all four of the gospels . . . we just see Him from a little different angle in each one.

The second shelf is HISTORY - and in the New Testament this shelf has only one book, the Acts of the Apostles. When you think of history you think of things that happened - acts, the behavior of the apostles. Acts contains what Jesus CONTINUED doing through His church after He was resurrected. The gospels tell us what Jesus did when He was here in person . . . and then Acts begins to tell us what Jesus did after He rose. We have been taught that the New Testament church is what? The body of Jesus Christ . . . so Acts explains what the body of Christ did, and is doing, after His physical body was resurrected.

The third shelf is THE LETTERS - twenty-one of them. Paul wrote quite a few letters to churches, and some to other preachers of the day . . . then there is another group, the general epistles - James through Jude - letters not written to one specific church . . . and these are just dictionary words you get out of the research books, none of this is original with me . . . I had to look all of it up.

And the last shelf is the PROPHECY shelf . . . now what book do you suppose is on the prophecy shelf? Revelation - the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the uncovering of Jesus Christ. Revelation is the unveiling that tells us where the road we are about to start traveling ends up . . . it is the final DESTINATION of the sixty-six books.

Now I want us to notice something, very briefly, about how these shelves are ARRANGED - because there is a lesson in it. Both Testaments, Old and New, run in basically the same order. First the foundation - the Law in the Old Testament, the Gospels in the New . . . then history - how God dealt with the nation of Israel, and how God deals with the church in the New Testament . . . then the poetry is sort of like the letters, because it is there we learn how God’s people FELT - their thinking, their emotions, the trials and tribulations that were facing them. You read Psalms and Proverbs and you learn the mind of David and the mind of Solomon . . . especially in Ecclesiastes - I have done everything under the sun, and guess what, it is all a bunch of nothing. The only thing that matters is fearing God, properly respecting Him, and making every effort we can to keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13) . . . and then the prophets and Revelation show the FUTURE - in the Old Testament the future of the nation of Israel, and in the New Testament the future of everything. There is a little bleed-over, too - some things prophesied in the Old Testament carry right on past it into the New Testament and connect up with Revelation, so it is not completely walled off.

And notice where the turning point is. When Malachi ended, there were four hundred and something years of what the research books call silence . . . no sound, no message, no prophecy, no word from God at ALL - until Matthew. Malachi closes with “the Sun of righteousness” who shall arise (Malachi 4:2) - that is Jesus Christ . . . and what is one of the first things we see in Matthew, besides the genealogy? The star that rose in the east (Matthew 2:2). What did that star represent? Jesus Christ . . . so if you read between the lines, you can see a message in the way these books are organized.

Now I am not real big on organization. If you came to our house and looked out in my shop you would think, oh my goodness, that poor thing, what is wrong with him - has he been sick? I cannot find anything out there. I have always thought it would be nice to be a mechanic, but the first thing that turned me off from it was the thought - I am going to have to keep track of Phillips screwdrivers, straight screwdrivers, metric wrenches . . . there is no way I am keeping up with all those tools . . . it is just not going to happen.

Well, the scriptures are organized the way they are so that when somebody says, “Preacher, what does the Bible say about Nebuchadnezzar?” - now Nebuchadnezzar was a real man, there are secular historical accounts of a king named Nebuchadnezzar - what shelf in the Old Testament would you guess we would find something about history? The history shelf . . . and you remember which books were on that shelf . . . so that narrows it down a little.

And I always get a feeling of comfort when I hear the words “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” I do not want to sound Pentecostal-ish or anything, but it just makes me HAPPY - it gives me a comfortable feeling . . . well, what shelf did we describe as the one that explains the heart of God’s people? The poetry shelf in the Old Testament, and the letters in the New. They describe how God’s people feel - the relationship between their heart and God’s heart . . . so when I say the way the Bible is organized preaches a little lesson . . . that is what I am getting at.

And every one of the sixty-six books has a KEY VERSE - a verse that unlocks the purpose of that particular book. Let me see here - my keychain. This new one is for the truck, and I have one, two, three, four, five . . . five keys on my keychain . . . well, by the time we finish these lessons on the sixty-six books, our keychain would have sixty-six keys on it - one key to open every book in the Bible . . . that is our goal . . . and once we learn the key, we will be able to get into that book - get into the mind of the man who wrote it.

From memory now - take John’s first letter. John wrote, “These things have I written unto you . . . that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13), and “that your joy may be full” (1 John 1:4). Those are two key verses that tell us the reason John wrote First John . . . and once we know that, every verse we read in that little book has that purpose behind it. Why did John write these other verses? So that our joy would be full, and so that we could know that we have eternal life.

The Address on the Envelope

Now the second thing - and in my way of thinking this is responsible for most, if not all, of the errors people think they see in the scriptures. Every letter has an address on the front of it. Every time you write a letter, it is going to be to a person - or “to whom it may concern” - or it will be obvious in the text who it was written to.

We said the Bible is in two halves . . . well, each half has been written to a different person, or group of people. Both halves are NOT addressed to the same address.

“He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.” - Psalm 147:19-20 (KJV)

“He hath not dealt so with any nation” - just the nation of Israel. The Old Testament is God’s Word to ISRAEL . . . and Paul hits it directly - notice what he says in Romans three.

“What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” - Romans 3:1-2 (KJV)

Committed - that is entrusted, handed over for safekeeping. The oracles of God, the spoken words of God, were given to the nation of Israel for them to safeguard . . . and we have another account in Deuteronomy - Moses says exactly the same thing to the people standing right in front of him.

“The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.” - Deuteronomy 5:3 (KJV)

He did not make it with our ancestors - He made it with US . . . so you look at the Old Testament - the law, the feasts, the promised land, the kings, the prophets . . . that is COVENANT mail. We have talked about what a covenant is - it is like a marriage contract . . . it is God’s relationship with His children - not just a father-and-child relationship, but a relationship that grows beyond that.

And then you get to the New Testament. The New Testament also has an address. The New Testament is not God’s Word to the nation of Israel . . . it is God’s Word to whom? The New Testament CHURCH. Remember we said the history shelf in the New Testament is the Acts of the Apostles - the gospels tell us what Jesus did in His person, and Acts tells us what Jesus does through the spiritual body of His church . . . then you get to the letters, and you read account after account - “unto the church of God which is at Corinth” . . . “unto the churches of Galatia” . . . and then the seven churches of Revelation, every one of them addressed to a CHURCH. The letters were written to local churches - and by extension, that is a big fancy word, but by extension, these letters are also written to churches just like the one sitting here this evening.

So do not say, “Well, preacher, that letter was written to a church two thousand years ago, so it really does not have anything to do with us today.” You are wrong. If it was written to the church at Corinth, you can scratch out “the church at Corinth” and write in “the church at Dardanelle,” and you have done no injustice to the scriptures at all . . . because if it applied to the churches in the days of Jesus and the apostle Paul, it applies just as much to our church today. The only difference is TIME.

Now I have heard this before - “Well, preacher, the Old Testament . . . we do not do that anymore.” I am not saying the Old Testament is not for us . . . and I am not saying at all that the Old Testament does not apply to us. I could chase a whole herd of rabbits right here, but I am going to resist the urge. The New Testament is our rule of faith and practice . . . and the Old Testament is full of pictures and patterns. We do not worship the same way they worshiped under the Old Testament - but we DO worship the same God they worshiped. We just do not follow the same worship rules . . . that is about the only difference.

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” - Romans 15:4 (KJV)

Written aforetime - that is the Old Testament. Written for OUR learning - whose learning? Ours, in the New Testament . . . so it was written TO Israel in the Old Testament, but it is preserved FOR us in the New . . . and there is no wiggle room in First Corinthians ten.

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” - 1 Corinthians 10:11 (KJV)

Ensamples - that is examples, patterns . . . and there is not a period after “ensamples” - it does not stop there. They are written for whose admonition? Whose warning? OUR admonition - to warn those of us in the New Testament, upon whom the ends of the world are come . . . so all scripture is profitable. You cannot just take an axe and cut the Old Testament out and say it is no good . . . it is full of pictures . . . it is full of patterns. I believe the apostle Paul calls it a shadow (Hebrews 10:1). If you see the shadow of a tree, you cannot actually see the tree, but you have a pretty good idea what that tree looks like. When we look in the Old Testament we see shadows - and if we look close enough, we get a pretty good idea of what is CASTING that shadow.

And think about this - I thought this was interesting when I ran across it. The Old Testament was actually the New Testament church’s FIRST Bible. Somebody says the Old Testament is not important . . . well, it was the first Bible the first churches had, so do not tell me it serves NO purpose. Jesus preached of Himself from it - on the road to Emmaus He opened the scriptures, and the Old Testament was all they had, and for those seven miles He taught them of Himself out of it (Luke 24:27).

So the point is, we do not just skip over the first thirty-nine books. During our Route 66 series we are going to cover every single book in the Bible - but we will ALWAYS - and I am going to take great care to be precise about this - every time we open a book of the Bible, we are going to read the ADDRESS before we read the letter. We are going to find out who it was written to before we look at what was written.

When we open Leviticus, we are reading covenant mail - the mail that established the relationship between God and His people - and it is addressed to the nation of Israel . . . and it is FULL of pictures. Go to Leviticus and read - there are types, there are pictures, there are shadows of Jesus Christ . . . and a thought came to me here . . . all those paintings in the museums were made by people a long, long time ago, but they still bring us joy. They show us things we would not otherwise be able to see . . . it is no different when we look in the Old Testament and see word-pictures of Christ - just because they are OLD does not mean they are outdated. They show us things we could not see any other way.

Now think about letters written to somebody else, and letters written to us. We all have people in our family we love and respect - think about a grandmother or a great-grandmother, dead and gone a long time now . . . well, you find a letter written by your saintly grandmother - and one letter was written to one of your aunts. You read it . . . oh yeah, that is nice - but then you run across a letter with YOUR name on the envelope. It was written to you. You read those two letters DIFFERENTLY. From the letter to your aunt you can learn what your grandmother was like, what she cared about, her hobbies and so on - but when you get to the one with your name on it, you find out what she wants YOU to do . . . you find out her relationship with you.

And that is the habit we are going to develop - the habit of checking the address on the envelope FIRST - because we check the address before we read what is in the letter, that is exactly why we do not have a cow pen out back behind the church building holding lambs and goats and bulls and calves, so we can go make a sacrifice after church is over. Those letters were not written to US. They were written to the nation of Israel . . . and there are people who get all twisted around and claim that the promises God made to the nation of Israel have been made to the United States of America. No. No. Look at the address on the front of the letter before you read what is in it.

Now we need to be careful here - there is a ditch on both sides of the road. I am not advocating throwing the Old Testament away . . . that is the choice some have made . . . and also, do not read the mail that was addressed to Israel as though it had our name on the front. We have to learn to stay in the MIDDLE. This half is addressed to the nation of Israel. This half is addressed to the New Testament church.

And I am just going to throw this out here. There are other, smaller divisions we could point out. “Oh, preacher, since the New Testament is written to the church, does that mean it is written to all the saved?” That is close - but no cigar . . . that is not the way it works. The Bible can benefit everyone who is saved, if they will open their eyes and pay attention to it . . . but there is not a single book in the Bible addressed to the saved-but-unfaithful. The address on the front of the letter is to the Lord’s New Testament church.

One last example, and I have used it before. When I was a little one, I thought Daniel Boone was the cat’s meow and could whip anybody - but I also believed my dad could whip Daniel Boone . . . and when he walked out through the pasture, I tried my best to put my feet where he put his feet. That worked out really well as long as I stayed close to him . . . but if I got very far away, it got a whole lot harder to find his footprints.

That is the idea here . . . that is how we are going to walk this Book during these lessons - as CLOSE behind the Author as we possibly can.

One Book - built like a library, but addressed like a letter.

So when we read our Bible this week, do we ever stop and ask who the envelope is addressed to? Take ten or fifteen minutes and read in Leviticus, and ask, “Who was this written to?” Then switch gears completely - go over to Corinthians or Ephesians in the New Testament and ask the same question. You are going to see some CHANGES when you ask it.

Our first actual lesson on the sixty-six books is scheduled for October the fourth, and it is going to be in Proverbs . . . so between now and October the fourth, read the ninth chapter of Proverbs. You have two women there, if memory serves - each one builds a house, and each one cooks a supper . . . one of them is called simple, and the other is the one we want to avoid. We want to AVOID the mistakes that woman made - and hopefully that is what this series of lessons is going to help us do.

Scripture Used

Psalm 147:19-20 · Romans 3:1-2 · Deuteronomy 5:3 · Romans 15:4 · 1 Corinthians 10:11 · Ecclesiastes 12:13 · Malachi 4:2 · Matthew 2:2 · 1 John 5:13 · 1 John 1:4 · Hebrews 10:1 · Luke 24:27 (all KJV)

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