The Word of Life — The Deep Study (1 John 1:1-4)

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Wednesday evening service, October 7, 2026 I, II & III John · Unit 1 Deep Study · 1 John 1:1-4

► Watch this lesson on video (40:06)

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This is the lesson the way it was preached on Wednesday night - near word for word. The "uh"s and the starts-over are taken out; the sentences are left the way they were said. Bible verses are printed exactly as they read in the King James. Anything marked GOING DEEPER was NOT preached on Wednesday night - it is extra study for anyone who wants to dig further.

THE WHOLE LAST LESSON IN ONE SENTENCE

Our scriptures this evening will be 1 John chapter 1, Luke chapter 24, Jude chapter 1, John chapter 15, and then Second Peter chapter 1.

Tonight we're going to go over 1 John 1-4 a little bit slower, a little bit more in depth than we covered these verses last time we talked about them.

If you missed our last lesson on First John, don't worry about it. And you may not have missed it. You may have been here and you may be thinking, "Man, I don't remember a thing in the world that preacher taught in that lesson." No problem. I'm going to give you the whole thing in one sentence. And I know Andy's thinking, well, if you can condense it into one sentence tonight, why couldn't you condense it into one sentence when you preached it?

Well, John had his hands, his physical hands, on Jesus Christ, and he wrote this in a letter so that you and I could have the same type of relationship with Jesus that he had.

Now, it was significant that he put his hands on Jesus, because - and we'll touch on this a little bit later - there was an error circulating in the churches of Ephesus that Jesus really didn't come in the flesh. And that's as far as I'll take that. But that's why it's significant. John's saying, "I saw Him. I heard Him. I studied His features. And I actually touched Him." That was to oppose the false doctrine that was prevalent at the time, leading some people astray.

EPHESUS AND THE LAST EYEWITNESS

Now Ephesus, where the letter of First John was written - at the time that it was written, Ephesus was one of the biggest; it was very crowded, and - well, this just popped into my mind - it was soaked with religion.

If you can kind of picture that: the temple of Diana, that was one of the seven wonders of the world. And every idea that you can imagine was for sale on the streets of this particular city. That was the setting when this letter of First John was written. That's what life was like.

And the apostle John was literally the last human being - remember, he was the last of the twelve apostles - he was the last human being that was an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Again, I mentioned this a second ago. You remember that there were teachers going out, leaving the churches there in Ephesus, and they were teaching that Jesus only seemed to have a real body. There was some reasoning behind that philosophy, but we'll touch on that later. And we watched in our last lesson on these scriptures how John answered that error: "I touched Jesus." He said, "I saw Him, I heard Him, and I studied His life." And that was to oppose this false doctrine.

Well, tonight we're going to do basically the same thing, except we're going to go a little bit deeper, because we're going to look at the grammar that the Apostle John used - the words that he chose. We're going to see how these words did exactly the same thing - give exactly the same testimony - that I saw Him, I heard Him, I studied His life, and I touched Him. The grammar that he used, the words that he chose to write, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is going to do the same thing that his testimony of what he saw and touched did.

1 John 1:1–4 — “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, 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.”

Now He's given us the purpose of the letter. These things we write unto you so that your joy might be full.

Remember, there's the purpose - the point to the lesson. We've kind of got in the habit of repeating it three times. The purpose of this evening's lesson is to show that John is not decorating some philosophy. He's building a relationship. He's showing you and me how to build a relationship with God. And every word that he uses in these first four verses is doing a particular job in this construction.

Now we know that the Bible is God's word, and I just want to point out: nothing in God's word is by chance or random. The words that the Apostle John used, the words that Paul used, the words that Matthew used, were not just given to chance. They were used on purpose. The Holy Spirit specifically laid on their heart: use this word, use that word, use this other word. And He did this a number of different ways - their experiences in life. They came from different backgrounds, had different levels of education, different kinds of experiences, and God rolled all of that up together and made sure that they wrote exactly what He wanted them to write.

THE SHAPE OF THE SENTENCE

Now, before we look at the words I'm talking about here - the words that are building this relationship that John had with God, and the relationship that he hopes that you and I have with God - let's look back at verses one and two and ask ourselves: do we recognize what the Apostle John is doing in these first two verses?

If we're looking for words that are going to be beneficial in helping us build our relationship with God, there should be a main action word. You remember from - well, I don't know if it's grade school anymore - but you remember what a verb is in English? It's a word that shows action. What is the main verb in verses one and two? Let's read them right quick and see if you can recognize it.

Hint: it ain't there.

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, 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.

Now, I put this together like John is a witness in a courtroom. So the terminology that I'm going to use in the remainder of the lesson is kind of directed toward that example. John is an eyewitness, like in a courtroom. He's an eyewitness of the physical body of Jesus Christ. That's why I emphasized the fact that he was the last eyewitness. If you're going to court and you want a reliable eyewitness, John is the one that you want - and he's the last eyewitness that's remained alive.

So John spends verses one and two gathering up everything that he heard, saw, looked upon, and touched. But you see, he's building the moment. He's building anticipation. He still hasn't told us what he's doing with all this evidence. Why are you telling us what you saw, heard, touched? Well, he doesn't tell us that until verse three. He says, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you."

Now John delays this explanation on purpose, because again, he's building anticipation. He wants us to understand the importance and the significance of the testimony he's given before we ever find out the direction that this evidence is pointing. If you were in the courtroom listening to his testimony, and he goes through, "Well, this is what we've seen, heard, touched," and everything - by the time he gets down to verse three and says, "This is what we're going to declare unto you," you're starting to get anxious. You're saying, "Okay, I understand what you saw, what you heard, what you touched - but now get to the point." That's the attitude that he's building here. The evidence comes first. And what the evidence points to - what all this means - he purposefully waited a little bit later to explain that.

GOING DEEPER · ETERNITY COMES FIRST
Not preached on Wednesday night — extra study.

Notice what John puts first. This letter does not start out "John the apostle, to the churches" - there's no greeting and no title. The first words put down by his pen are "that which was from the BEGINNING." Whatever a man puts first in his sentence, he puts there on purpose. So John puts eternity in front of everything else - exactly the same way he opened his Gospel: John 1:1 — "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The One John touched did not begin being God when John touched Him. He existed before all things - and then He came within arm's length. Watch the distance close in John's four verbs: heard - seen - looked upon - handled. That is the Incarnation (God come in the flesh) in one sentence. And we close that same distance today: Romans 10:17 — "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." We hear the Word from a distance; sitting under the preaching of it brings us closer; believing what we hear brings us closer still; and repenting - putting that belief into practice - brings us as close to God as we can get.

THE MAP: EVIDENCE, FELLOWSHIP, JOY

Now I'm going to read these verses again. I'm going to paraphrase them just a little bit. My attempt here is to make it be heard closer to the way the words come across in the Greek. So listen, and see if you can determine the direction that this passage is going. (This is Pastor Chuck's paraphrase - not the King James.)

"That which was from the beginning, which we heard, which we saw with our own eyes, which we gazed upon and which our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life - what we have seen and heard, we're reporting to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father, with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write, so that your joy might stand filled full."

And the word full - we'll get to that in just a minute. It doesn't just mean it's full today and empty tomorrow.

There's four verbs that he uses in his testimony: heard, saw, gazed, handled. And then there's a statement of fellowship, followed by a statement of his purpose. Now, the evidence comes first. The fellowship which this evidence is intended to produce is what comes next. And joy is the final destination. Now, this is like a map of the opening of the letter of First John.

And the whole point: if we have faith in the testimony of the apostle John, then we can experience the same attitude in our heart that he experienced, having actually heard, seen, and touched. If our faith is weak, then the testimony of the Apostle John kind of doesn't mean much - because we really don't believe it. It's not real to us.

That's the whole point of the testimony of an eyewitness and relying on it. To rely on the testimony of an eyewitness means that we have confidence in that eyewitness, and that what that eyewitness says is real. It sort of almost puts us in the circumstance that the witness is describing - and that's the idea here. John is doing this so that the relationship that he has with the God that he actually touched and saw and heard - so that we might have that same type of relationship.

DECLARE WE UNTO YOU - THE CHAIN OF FELLOWSHIP

1 John 1:3 — “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.”

Now this phrase here, "declare we unto you" - that's the kind of talk that we would expect to hear in a courtroom. You've watched enough Perry Mason to realize: when a witness takes the stand, he doesn't get up there and say, "Well, this is what I think." It's not speculation. It's: what did you see? No opinion - just the facts.

And then John traces the fellowship that he has with God. See how exactly he phrases that: "that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." Now this fellowship is with God, with His Son Jesus, with John, and with one another - and that kind of makes up a chain. I'm going to refer to that as the chain of fellowship.

You see, this chain of fellowship is where the eyewitness testimony is supposed to lead. That's what the eyewitness testimony is intended to produce: "that ye also may have fellowship with us" - with the apostles, the remaining eyewitnesses, even though there's only one left, John. "And our fellowship is with the Father" - referring to God. And our fellowship is also with God's Son, Jesus Christ. So you have an unbroken chain of fellowship.

If we believe in our heart that this eyewitness is telling the truth, then the effect of hearing that eyewitness will be that the relationship that we have with Jesus and with God will be the same type of relationship that John - who actually touched Jesus - had with Jesus and with God.

And the last word of the whole passage that we just read is the purpose of everything that he wrote: so that your joy may be full.

THREE WORDS: HANDLED

Now we're going to look at three specific words this evening. And with every one of these words, we're going to ask: I wonder why the Apostle John picked that particular word?

The first word we're going to look at is "handled." Why did John use this particular word? In our language there's like a dozen different words that pretty much mean the same thing. We can just pick any one of them and it's no big deal - the context of a conversation will allow the listener to understand what we're talking about. Well, the Bible didn't leave anything to chance.

The word here is pronounced psay-lah-FAH-oh, and it's not the ordinary word that's typically used for touching. It's the feeling-after kind of touch. Now, what I mean by that: it's like if the lights were all out and we were feeling around on the wall to find the light switch. It's that kind of feeling.

And it's not used here by accident, because it's the exact same word that Jesus used on Easter when He showed Himself to His disciples. That takes us to Luke 24:39. Notice the word "handle" when we get here. It's not just touch. It's touch - making sure that what is there is what you think it is.

Luke 24:39 — “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.”

Now Jesus is saying, "Make sure that it's really Me." And John was actually in the room here when Jesus said it. In fact - now, we don't know - but John's hands may have actually been those hands that reached out and handled Him, touched Him, to make sure that He was who He claimed to be. And sixty years later, the same hand that reached out and made sure that it really was Jesus wrote down the exact same word that Jesus had used.

So think about what that does to the claim that Jesus had no real physical body. John doesn't write a lengthy paper trying to argue his point. He uses one verb against this whole philosophy.

And once again, if you'll notice where that word is used: I've got here in my notes that the word he used pretty much has Easter right in the middle of it. For there to be a resurrection, there had to be a physical body. And after Jesus was resurrected, He said, "Touch Me and make sure that I'm who I claim to be." So again, this is John's method to oppose the false doctrine that Jesus really didn't have a physical body - that He only seemed like He had a physical body.

THREE WORDS: FELLOWSHIP

Now, the second word we're going to look at is fellowship. And this is pretty interesting. There's quite a bit that I learned from this word fellowship.

In the original, it's pronounced koy-no-NEE-ah, and we used it in a previous lesson to describe partners who own something together. Well, tonight we're going to go just a little bit further in the definition. The root word from which this word fellowship comes is pronounced KOY-noss, and it means common. It's talking about something that is held in common - jointly owned, jointly lived in. It's like an apartment that is shared by two different people: each one responsible for half the rent, both names on the title, kind of thing.

Now Jude uses the root of this word fellowship.

Jude 1:3 — “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

"The common salvation" - that's the root word, and it means something shared. The common salvation - the one salvation that all of us hold together. That's what Jude's talking about.

So when John says "our fellowship is with the Father," he's talking about something that belongs to God - the life that is in God. And he's talking about how the life that is found in God is now held in common with everyone who is in that chain of fellowship - with everyone who is a believer in Christ.

So "fellowship" as it is used here in this passage is not talking about the coffee time that we have after Sunday school. It's actually referring to co-ownership - co-ownership in the one thing that matters the most.

Now obviously, the one thing that matters the most, first of all, is the salvation of our soul - because if we're not saved, nothing else matters. After we have been saved, what is the one thing that matters the most? Our fellowship with the God that saved our soul. Not to keep us saved, not to keep us from becoming lost - but the relationship that we will have in God forever and forever and forever. Will we be a close friend with God in heaven, or will our friendship be a little more distant? Will we live in the city with direct access to God in heaven, or will we be on the other side of the walls, outside the city, kind of thing?

GOING DEEPER · INSIDE THE CITY - AND OUTSIDE IT
Not preached on Wednesday night — extra study.

Some readers have been taught that everyone outside the heavenly city is lost. Look closely at the language. Revelation 21:24 — "And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." Saved people, walking in the city's light. Revelation 22:14 — "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." The right to enter is tied to doing His commandments. The Bride is inside because she made herself ready: Revelation 19:7-8 — "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." And a child of God who lived careless - like Demas, who "loved this present world" (2 Timothy 4:10) - is still saved: 1 Corinthians 3:15 — "If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." That does not mean that we stop being saved - but it means we stop minding our heavenly Father, and we lose the closeness that could have been ours.

GOING DEEPER · THE FAMILY WORD OF THE EARLY CHURCH
Not preached on Wednesday night — extra study.

KOY-noss - "common" - was the family word of the early church. Jude's "common salvation" is the koinos salvation: the one salvation that we all hold together. When the early believers used this word, they were not describing a meal after service; they were describing what they jointly owned - the very life of God - and a family that holds that title together.

THREE WORDS: FULL

Well, the third word we're going to talk about is the word "full." It's pronounced pep-lay-ro-MEN-ay. And this is the finished-and-still-standing form of the word for "fill." Now, by finished and still standing, I mean something that got filled - a cup, a bucket, a vessel - that got filled up at some time in the past, and it's still full right now in the present.

I thought about a post hole that's been filled with concrete. That post hole gets filled with concrete how many times? Just once. When it gets filled up with concrete, that concrete doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't disappear. It never drains out. Well, that's the idea here. He's saying your joy is not going to run out later: "I'm telling you this so that your joy may stay completely full."

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

This is a quote from the Gospel of John. And it's the exact same word that the Apostle John used in his letter, First John. And once again, he heard this word that Jesus used at the last supper, the night before His crucifixion. And about sixty years after the crucifixion, John remembers, and he uses this same word. He's pretty much quoting Jesus. Jesus is saying, "I've told you these things, and the purpose for which I've told you is so that your joy might be full, and so that My joy might remain in you."

And what the apostle John is saying over here in the letter of First John - he's giving us this eyewitness testimony that Jesus was in fact here in a physical body. And everything in the letter has been written for the purpose that we can experience and keep the same level of joy that the Apostle John had.

But again, it's all kind of pointless if we don't really believe the eyewitness testimony. Then we're wasting our time if we think we're ever going to receive this type of joy.

GOING DEEPER · A CUP GOD TOPS OFF
Not preached on Wednesday night — extra study.

The same kind of promise shows up in other places - a cup God intends to fill and keep full. Psalm 23:5 — "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over." And on the mountain: Matthew 5:6 — "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." The idea being that we will be filled as long as we remain hungry. A caution for careful readers: these are different words in the original - it is the same kind of promise, not the same word as "full" in 1 John 1:4.

THE HARD VERSES - AND WHY THEY ARE THERE

The word "full" is pretty much going to determine how we read verses in First John that we look at and think, "Hmm, that's a little harsh."

I'm not going to go into detail - we'll single out these verses in later lessons. I just want to kind of skim the top right now. There are some difficult sayings in the book of First John. He says, "Now I've written this so that your joy may be full." Well, so why did you tell us in First John 3:6 -

1 John 3:6 — “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.”

Well, my goodness, I sin every day. What's that saying? And we'll talk about this later.

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

Now wait a minute - I really don't like so-and-so very much. And if we're not careful, we'll read verses like this and we'll walk away a little bit unsure. We'll walk away filled with doubt instead of walking away being confident.

John tells us exactly why he wrote the whole letter, and these difficult verses are in that same letter, and they fall under the same reasoning. Notice First John 5:13:

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

He didn't put these difficult verses in here to cause us to doubt. He put these things in here so that we may know without a doubt that we have eternal life. So there is something more to these difficult scriptures than what we see right on the surface. But the thing that we should be aware of for every verse - even those verses that we don't understand yet, but we will understand them - is that the purpose of the book is so that our joy will be full, so it'll remain full, and so that we will no longer have any doubts about our salvation. So that's the promise that is hidden in the book of First John.

UNDER PRESSURE: WHO IS LORD?

Now, they were under a little bit of pressure back during the day of the Caesars. You know how political correctness is kind of the thing today, and if we are not politically correct, then we stand to suffer the consequences, as it were. Well, one of the social pressures that people were under in the days of John, when he wrote this book, was that everybody was being pressured for Caesar's official title to be "Lord and God."

There's a phrase in Latin, Dominus et Deus - that was the title of Caesar in that day, and it was becoming more and more popular to put this title on Caesar. Well now John is kind of caught between a rock and a hard place, because his Lord and God is not Caesar, but Jesus Christ. To say that Caesar was Lord and God was to pretty much be in agreement with these naysayers that had said Jesus really didn't come in the flesh.

It's kind of like being tested. Now, has anybody here ever been - you go to work and the boss says, "You're going to have to be here every Sunday to work, or I'll find somebody else that'll fill your position." Or for the younger people, a coach: "We're going to have practice on Sunday mornings and Wednesday night, and if you're not here for practice, I'm going to fill your position with somebody else." And a very common example: "If everybody else is doing it, and you don't do it too, I'm not going to let you play with us. I'm not going to let you sit at our table." This popularity thing is really on steroids for younger people.

Well, what I'm getting at: this is an example of someone else wanting to be the Lord of our life. Now Caesar had the title God and Lord, and he wanted to use that title to be a dictator, with nobody questioning - that was back in the government. Well, the people we live with on a day-to-day basis - our friends, our bosses at work - they're not claiming to be Caesar. But if they make these kinds of demands on us, then what they are demanding is that we replace Jesus as our Lord and God, and let them be our Lord and God, because they are attempting to control the direction of our lives.

Well, do we like the idea of being a star player on the team more than we like the idea of pleasing God? Well, if we do, we'll suffer the consequences.

GOING DEEPER · WHEN THE TEMPLE WAS GONE - AND THE FOUR ERRORS
Not preached on Wednesday night — extra study.

Two things from the study that did not get preached. FIRST - the letter was written somewhere between AD 85 and 95, and by then the Temple in Jerusalem had been in rubble for fifteen to twenty-five years. For over a thousand years the Temple was where a man went to meet God. So where does a man go now? John answers in verse one: to the One John put his hands on. John 2:19 — "Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." John 2:21 — "But he spake of the temple of his body." The building is gone, but the meeting place is a Person. SECOND - the teachers who went out made four claims: that Christ never came in the flesh; that they knew God without keeping His commandments; that they had no sin; and that they loved God while they hated their brother. That is not four random mistakes - that is a pattern, and John answers each one as the letter goes along.

FAITH THAT DOES NOT RIDE ON CIRCUMSTANCES

As we're about ready to finish: I've noticed a lot of people in my life - if everything is going good, oh, they're on cloud nine. They're just happy to be associated with Jesus, and they claim to have faith, and everything's fine and dandy. But when the train jumps the track - when they have a flat, when they don't get that raise, whatever - they don't really feel that way anymore. In other words, their faith is dependent upon circumstances. No, no, no. If our faith is dependent upon circumstances, we will never grow in the faith.

Now you see, God literally put Himself in the flesh of a human man. Now that's the incarnate Christ - you've heard that expression. Well, why did God literally take on the form of a human man? He took on the form of a human so that He could suffer death for all men. If He had not been a man Himself, He could not have suffered for us.

2 Peter 1:16 — “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

There's that courtroom word again - eyewitnesses. So if we believe the testimony of the witness, we can have the exact same fellowship with God as the Apostle John did. If - "Well, I'm not quite so sure about that" - then we're not going to have the same type of fellowship.

FELLOWSHIP IS THE POINT

Well, I'll just leave you with this. You remember the song "God on the Mountain"? Well, the God on the mountain is also the God in the valley.

And the idea is that fellowship is the point. Fellowship is the point of the whole thing. "Well, preacher, I thought you said it was so our joy would be full." Well, duh. We cannot have joy if we do not have fellowship. You go home to Mama, and if Mama's out of sorts, there ain't no joy going to be experienced there.

Marital ups and downs, I suppose, are kind of a common thing. But I learned a long time ago - first of all, I'm not perfect. I realize that my wife is not perfect. I think she is really, really close. But the point is: I don't care if I don't get my way about a particular thing. Now, we're not talking about anything in the Ten Commandments. We're just talking about the things of life. I have learned it is not worth upsetting the apple cart just to get my way. It's just not worth it. So I don't care what it is - if I really would rather have the red one, and she's going to get upset if we get the red one, whatever she says goes. Because I value peace in my house. I value fellowship in my house more than I value anything else.

The other side of that coin - this is the way it is with my spiritual life, with God. I'm just as normal as anybody else. I've got my will - what I want, and the way that I wish it would go. But nothing - and I've learned this - nothing is worth more than joy and sweet fellowship with God. Yeah, I can get my way. I can do what I want - but at a cost. It's just not worth it.

So the most important thing: one, the salvation of our soul. Secondly, after we're saved, what's the most important thing? The fellowship that we have with the God that saved us.

Are you in fellowship with God? Do you want to be in fellowship with God? Do you want that fellowship to be stronger and better? Please consider that as we stand and sing.

GOING DEEPER · FOR THE TABLE AT HOME
Not preached on Wednesday night — extra study.

Three questions for a family or a class: 1) FULL JOY IS THE DESTINATION. Knowing that is where the letter is headed, how does it change the way we read the hard verses that are coming? Have we been reading First John as a threatening letter or a joy-filling one? 2) COMMON - JOINTLY OWNED. Shared life, not just social time. How is that different from what most folks mean by "fellowship"? 3) DECLARE WE UNTO YOU. That is witness language. What is the difference between an eyewitness report and a man's opinion about God - and why does it matter on the days believing is hard?

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The Word of Life • The Deep Study — 1 John 1:1–4 © Chuck Trusty Bible Study Series

How to Read the Bible — Lesson 6: Read a Verse's Neighbors

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE — a short course from Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church • Pastor Chuck Trusty • Lesson 6 of 13 • a new lesson every two weeks

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Last Time

Last lesson you took Luke 9:23 home:

"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 was "take up his cross." It sounds like dying — but you had the tool: when a verse is hard, let a plain word beside it explain the deep. The plain words sat right there in the same verse — "follow me," and "daily." So the great cross is carried by following, one ordinary day at a time — a daily walk behind Him, not a hero's leap. That was your step. Now, one more tool.

The Verse

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." — Matthew 7:1

The Question

Here is a verse the whole world knows — even people who never open a Bible. It is thrown down like the end of every argument: "Judge not!" — never correct anyone, never say anything is wrong, mind your own business. Is that what the Lord meant? There is one sure way to find out: read its neighbors.

The Tool — walked together

First, ask your questions. WHO? The Lord Jesus is speaking — and this is a command, so who is it spoken to? Step back to the start of the sermon: "he opened his mouth, and taught them" (Matthew 5:2) — His disciples and the crowd, plain people, not judges in a courtroom. WHAT? A command: judge not. WHEN? and WHERE? The verse itself does not say — two empty boxes. But step back again and the neighbors fill them: on a mountain (Matthew 5:1), early in His teaching. WHY? The verse gives its own reason: "that ye be not judged" — judge, and you will be judged by the same measure.

Before we name the new tool, run the ones you already carry. Read the whole verse: short as it is, its last words give the reason — "that ye be not judged." Every command has an address: you have found who it is spoken to — plain disciples, not courtroom judges. Let the Bible define its own words: there is a sharp word here — hypocrite, one verse on — and we will draw it up below. And let the clear explain the deep? No dark phrase here needs a plain verse set beside it — that tool rests this time. What this verse needs is its neighbors. Which is exactly the new tool.

Two of our boxes were empty, and the verses around the verse filled them. That is the whole tool. TOOL #6: a verse has neighbors — read the ones just before and just after. A verse pulled out of its neighborhood can be made to say almost anything. Here is a plain case: lift three words out of Psalm 14:1 and the Bible seems to say, "There is no God." But read the neighbors — the whole verse — and it says the opposite: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." The neighbors flip it clean around. Read a verse at home, among its own, and it says what God meant.

So let us do it here. Read straight on, past verse 1:

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? ... Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." — Matthew 7:3, 5

Now the verse comes clear. "Judge not" is not a rule against judging at all — it is a rule about HOW to judge. The Lord does not say, "never see your brother's fault"; He says, do not sit over it while a beam is in your own eye. That beam is what makes you unfit — you cannot see straight to help. So take the beam out first, and "then" — only then — "shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." A clear eye is a fit eye. The rest of the Book says the very same: "ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself" (Galatians 6:1). Not leave him — restore him; gently, and watching your own heart. The neighbors did not weaken the verse; they aimed it.

ONE WORD

The word the Lord uses is sharp: HYPOCRITE. In the language the New Testament was written in, a hypocrite was a stage-actor — a man who put on a mask and played a part that was not his own. That is the picture. The hypocrite judge is acting: he plays the righteous man while hiding a beam behind the mask. "Judge not" reaches up and pulls that mask off — it forbids the play-acting, looking clean while you hide your own sin. Take the mask off first, and you will see clearly enough to help.

Try It This Week

Here is your verse. Read it — then read its next-door neighbor, the very next verse:

"If ye love me, keep my commandments." — John 14:15

Bring your questions, and read the whole verse: love Him, and it shows in keeping His commandments. Now read the neighbor, verse 16:

"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." — John 14:16

See what the neighbor adds? You are not left to keep His commandments on your own strength. The very next breath promises the Comforter — the Spirit of God — to abide with you for ever. Love shows in obedience — and it is not a load you carry alone.

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.   6. A verse has neighbors — read the ones just before and just after.

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Next lesson, in two weeks: the Bible agrees with itself — when one page quotes another, and the two lock together like a key in a lock.

‹ Lesson 5 — Let the Clear Explain the Deep  •  The Course Index — all lessons

The Apprentice Paper — Proverbs 9:10, the Front-Door Key

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday evening service, October 4, 2026 Route 66 · Track 2, Book 01 of 66 · Proverbs 9:10

► Watch this lesson on video (34:28)

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This morning we stood on the bottom step of the Great Staircase - the fear of the LORD - and we looked at it from four different directions . . . Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. That was kind of the front porch. And that is the way we are going to travel this road - every several weeks we will have a Sunday morning lesson that names the next group of books we are going to look at, and then on Sunday evenings we will take a lesson out of each one of those books, one book at a time . . . sixty-six books, one KEY verse for each one.

So Route 66 pulls out of the driveway for real this afternoon - and the first book on the road is PROVERBS. And the key verse in Proverbs is one we already read this morning.

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

Now this afternoon that very same verse is going to do a different JOB - we are going to look at it from a different angle. This morning we stood on it like a step . . . the bottom step. But this afternoon we are going to use it like a KEY - because this one verse is the key to the front door of the book of Proverbs, and I want to show us why not one single proverb in the whole book is going to work in the life of a person who does not fear the LORD.

The Apprentice Paper

Does anybody here know what the word APPRENTICE means? Maybe a few of us do - but for Claire and Wyatt and the younger ones . . . a long time ago, when somebody was growing up and wanted to learn a trade - say he wanted to be a blacksmith, or a carpenter, or a plumber - he did not just pick up the tools and start doing the job. He went to a man who already KNEW that trade, and he signed a piece of paper.

And that paper said, basically - “Okay, I will come to work for you . . . I will LISTEN to you, I will do it your way, and I will let you teach me.”

Now how hard is it for us to listen to people? The whole time I was being raised I was told, over and over - “Chuck, you will never live long enough to draw Social Security - you always have to do it your OWN way.” Well, that is just human nature . . . but I have lived long enough to draw Social Security - so thank you, Uncle Mark.

Until that young man signed the apprentice paper, he was just a fellow standing around the shop - learning the language, watching what was going on, and never learning the trade. It is kind of like signing up for a football team, or one of those kickboxing or judo classes - before you can take the class, you have to tell the coach, “I will do what you say . . . I will pay attention to what you teach me.”

And that is what the fear of the LORD is - it is when we tell God, “You are the TEACHER, I am the learner, and I will do it YOUR way instead of my way.” And King Solomon puts that apprentice paper right at the FRONT DOOR of the book of Proverbs - because nobody learns wisdom from God until they sign it . . . until they agree to listen, and agree to let God teach them.

The fear of the LORD is the apprentice paper we sign at the front door of Proverbs.

The Key on the Nail by the Door

Now here is what Proverbs is - it is God’s handbook for ordering every corner of our daily life. And this is just a personal note from your preacher . . . after we have been saved and properly baptized, if there was ONE book I would tell us to read, it would be the book of Proverbs - because Proverbs explains every part of life. It tells us what kind of words we should use, how we ought to behave at work and what our attitude toward work should be, how to handle our money and what our attitude toward money should be, our friends, our temper (controlling our anger), our character - and all of it is built around one thing . . . the reverent fear of the LORD.

Now notice WHERE God hung the key. Right up front, right by the front door - Proverbs opens with it:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” - Proverbs 1:7 (KJV)

And then Solomon hangs that same key up AGAIN in chapter nine, verse ten - right before all the short little sayings begin. Chapters one through nine are sort of like the front porch . . . and then we get into chapter ten, and that is where the WORKSHOP begins - one saying after another after another after another, all those little sayings Proverbs is known for.

Does anybody here have a workshop, or a detached garage, with all kinds of tools scattered around in it? If you are like me, I know I have one of those tools - I just have no idea where it is. But everything in that shop - the saws, the welder, all the good tools we keep in out of the rain - we get to every one of them by using that ONE key. And that is what Proverbs is . . . it is the workshop that sits behind chapters nine and ten. And Solomon did not hide the key under the floor mat - he hung it on a nail right by the door, where even the smallest child could find it.

God put the key on the door on PURPOSE. Because a man who walks into that workshop without the fear of the LORD is going to pick up all the sayings from chapter ten onward - and he is going to MISUSE them. It would be like somebody walking into my woodworking shop and saying, “I am going to start running these tools” - when he has never touched one before and does not know how to use them . . . it is not going to be long before he cuts himself.

And that is the idea here - if we take up Proverbs without a proper fear of the LORD, we will not know how to use those sayings, and we will wind up WOUNDING our own lives. The proverbs on money - instead of teaching us how to handle money, they will teach us how to be greedy. The proverbs on the tongue - we will misapply those and just think we are clever. Without the fear of the LORD, Proverbs is a book with a bunch of catchy sayings in it . . . but if we DO have the fear of the LORD, then Proverbs turns into a wise man’s LIFE. One way, it is just a book with some neat stuff in it - and the other way, this is actually my life, and this is actually your life.

Four Words in One Verse

There are four words in Proverbs 9:10 that I want us to look at.

The first word is FEAR. In the original language it sounds something like yir-AH - and it is the same word Moses used at the foot of Mount Sinai when the mountain was smoking and all the people down below were shaking. It carries AWE in it . . . it carries REVERENCE.

Now the fear of the LORD itself lasts forever - and there are scriptures that back that up. But OUR grip on the fear of the LORD does not last forever - it can be lost. That does not mean we stop being saved . . . it means we stop MINDING our heavenly Father. If we have proper respect for our father, we will mind him even when he is not there watching us - but if we have little respect for our parents, then as soon as his back is turned, we start doing what we want to do. That is the idea here. Consider Lot, and Sodom and Gomorrah . . . consider the church at Ephesus - they started out good, but they wound up leaving their first love. That is why Moses told the people that God had come “that his fear may be before your faces” - God wants us to KEEP the fear of the LORD out in front of us, and that tells us it is possible to let it slip out of our hands.

“Happy is the man that feareth alway (all the time - continually): but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.” - Proverbs 28:14 (KJV)

That tells us the fear of the LORD is something we have to KEEP . . . to hold on to - and the man who lets it go is the man whose heart gets HARD.

“The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.” - Psalm 19:9 (KJV)

Now that does not mean, “I fear God properly today, so I will fear God forever.” It means the fear, the love, the respect, and the awe of God will be in existence FOREVER - but if I fear God today, I can drift away from what I ought to be and not fear Him the way I ought to fear Him tomorrow. So let us not misunderstand or misapply a scripture like this one.

The second word is BEGINNING - the first, the chief, the principal part. And it is the very idea that opens the whole Bible:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” - Genesis 1:1 (KJV)

Wisdom has a beginning the same way that creation has a beginning - and NOTHING stands in front of the beginning of creation. It is like that very first Lego on the tower we build . . . there is no wisdom out in front of the fear of the LORD any more than there is some other kind of world out in front of Genesis chapter one. It is just not there. Wisdom cannot exist without the fear of the LORD.

The third word is WISDOM - and this word gives us the idea of a CRAFTSMAN. We talked about the apprentice, and the apprentice is tied to a trade, a craft we practice in our lives to earn a living. Well, wisdom is related to that. Notice how God uses the word in Exodus:

“And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,” - Exodus 31:3 (KJV)

That is Bezaleel - the man God filled with wisdom so he could build the tabernacle, and work in gold, and silver, and brass. So wisdom in the Bible is not just what a man knows in his HEAD . . . it is what his hands, and the time he has in his life, can DO with what he knows in his head. Knowing something is not the same as doing it - knowing what God wants us to do is not the same as actually DOING it. Wisdom is craftsmanship - the skill to do something, applied not to a job but to our LIVES.

The fourth word is THE HOLY. That word is the way the Hebrews, back in that day, bowed to a God who was too big to describe with just one word - and it is the way Isaiah heard it:

“And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” - Isaiah 6:3 (KJV)

Holy - three times over. Now understanding does not come from knowing holy THINGS . . . it does not come from walking inside a holy building. Understanding comes from knowing a holy God PERSONALLY - that is where we get understanding.

So if we put those four words back together and hear the verse fresh, what we have is this - the reverent fear of the LORD is the foundation and the chief part of wisdom . . . and to know the Holy One personally, THAT is understanding.

The fear of the LORD is the apprentice paper we sign at the front door of Proverbs - before we ever walk in to its teaching.

Bought the Tools, or Signed the Paper?

Now wisdom in Proverbs is like an occupation - and every occupation is learned the same way . . . as an apprentice, under a master who already knows how. It is very much like going to college. I did not know how to be an engineer until I went to college and learned engineering.

Some people think they can become a craftsman just by going out and buying all the right tools. But we do not become a plumber by buying plumber’s tools - we do not become an engineer by buying a calculator. Nobody ever became a master plumber or a master electrician by going out and buying the right tools. To master a trade, we have to bind ourselves to someone who is a MASTER of that craft - we have to show up early, we have to watch how the boss does things, and we have to take CORRECTION without quitting.

Now that last one is something I have seen extremely often - in the workplace, and even at church, in spiritual things . . . taking correction the right way - without getting disappointed and quitting, without getting down on ourselves - “well, I should have known better.”

The first thing that popped into my mind was a kindergartner who does not know the difference between a little “d” and a little “b” - the only difference is which direction the little curvy part goes. Now should a kindergartner already know how not to mix up a “d” and a “b”? Of course not - they are still LEARNING.

I can remember this one personally. I remember being taught how to write my name - Charles. The C looked like a letter. The H was obviously a letter. Now I was just a little old kid - an A, yes, an R . . . but the L was just a straight line, and I remember asking my teacher why I had to draw a line in the middle of my name - because that is what it looked like to me. Well - “I should have known better, I am just going to quit school and drop out and be all discouraged” - no.

Folks, when we are corrected of God - and you little ones, when you are in school and you miss a problem and get corrected - that is how we LEARN. If we already knew everything up front, the way a lot of people think they do, there would be no need for school. Taking correction is one of the ways we humble ourselves before God - and the attitude we have toward correction is going to decide whether we have a happy life . . . or a life full of potholes.

The apprentice does the small jobs the right way - oftentimes for YEARS. Not getting it right is simply HUMAN . . . that is not failure. Not LISTENING is failure. Not wanting to get it right - insisting on doing it our own way - THAT is failure. And Jesus said it this way:

“. . . Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things . . .” - Matthew 25:21 (KJV)

Now I want us to hear Proverbs CORRECTLY - from the right side of the shop door. Thirty-one chapters of a Master Craftsman’s instructions - on money, on temper, on friendship, on laziness, on how to use our tongue, on the bottle (alcohol and drugs), on the marriage bed . . . and the apprentice paper, the agreement we sign at the front of the workshop, is Proverbs 9:10 - the fear of the LORD.

A man who will not give proper reverence to the Master can hang around the shop his whole life - he can hang around CHURCH his whole life - and learn nothing except the vocabulary. He can get really good at talking the talk and never learn how to walk the walk. And that is the difference between a man who can QUOTE Proverbs and a man who can LIVE Proverbs . . . one of them has bought the tools - but the other one has actually SIGNED THE PAPER. “I will listen - and I will let You correct me.”

The Homework - and the Shop Door Is Open

So here is our homework, if you will. There are thirty-one chapters in Proverbs - so read one chapter of Proverbs every day. And when a verse we read touches on a place we know is a weakness in us, write that weakness down - and try to make it go away before the sun sets.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not (does not scold us, does not throw it back in our face); and it shall be given him.” - James 1:5 (KJV)

The door to the shop is OPEN . . . and the Master Craftsman is still taking on apprentices. But I will tell you up front - and I have seen this - the first grader who quits school the first time he misses a problem is a student who will never move past the first-grade lessons. He is going to be stuck in the first grade until he learns how to accept correction.

The only way we would not need correction is if we were already perfect to begin with - and is anybody here perfect? No . . . then we ALL need correction, to move us closer to what God wants us to be.

So let me say it one more time - if we are saved, we are secure in our salvation . . . and if we have been properly baptized, and there was one book in the whole Bible I would encourage us to read at least part of every single day of our lives, it would be Proverbs - because Proverbs is the key that unlocks the meaning of a Christian LIFE.

The fear of the LORD is the apprentice paper we sign at the front door of Proverbs.

Scripture Used

Proverbs 9:10 · Proverbs 1:7 · Proverbs 28:14 · Psalm 19:9 · Genesis 1:1 · Exodus 31:3 · Isaiah 6:3 · Matthew 25:21 · James 1:5 (all KJV)

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Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.

The Fear of the LORD Is the Beginning

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday morning service, October 4, 2026 Route 66 · The Great Staircase, Landing 1 of 13 · Proverbs 9:10 · Job 28:28 · Ecclesiastes 12:13 · Song of Solomon 8:7

► Watch this lesson on video (47:21)

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This morning we are starting a new series of lessons - and it is going to take a while, but we are going to go through all sixty-six books of the Bible . . . and I want us to use the picture of climbing a STAIRCASE to help us through it, the same kind of staircase Peter described for us in Second Peter chapter one.

“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” - 2 Peter 1:5-7 (KJV)

Each step builds on the one under it - and we have had several lessons over the past month or two about that staircase. But here is the idea I want us to see - the sixty-six books of our Bible were not just tossed in there at random . . . there is a PURPOSE for where every one of them has been placed.

Now some staircases are small and narrow - no big deal. And then there are those staircases we see on TV, out of Hollywood - great big, wide, GRAND staircases. Think about the difference between a plain piano and a GRAND piano. Men have come up with all kinds of philosophies - and some of them are kind of sharp, and some of them have some good points - but not one of them is to be compared with the grand staircase that the sixty-six books of the Bible represent. It is not just a way to live a little better - it is a way to live a WHOLE lot better. And I am not talking about the physical things of this world - I am talking about our relationship with God . . . because if we do not have a good strong relationship with God, the circumstances of our life really are not that important. We will see that when we get to King Solomon - he walked up every staircase there was, looking for happiness and contentment, and at the end of it all he told us the conclusion of the whole matter - “Fear God, and keep his commandments.” That is what we were DESIGNED to do.

There are sixty-six books in the Bible - but there is only ONE story. The Bible tells us of a good and a perfect God . . . it tells us of a people who keep drifting away from that good and perfect God . . . and it tells us of a Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who comes DOWN the staircase in order to carry those of us who have drifted back UP it.

Now I want to clarify something before we go any further - I am not talking about losing our salvation and God coming down to restore it. I am talking about the FELLOWSHIP we have with God after He saves us. Am I the only one whose life is a constant series of ups and downs? Today my relationship with God might be spot-on . . . and tomorrow it may not be as close as it is today. I am constantly drifting - and what does God do? Every time I humble my heart and repent, He comes down that staircase and takes hold of me, and He carries me back up to a closer relationship - not to restore my salvation, but just like David, to “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.”

So where does a staircase like that begin? On the surface we might think - “Well, preacher, it is probably going to begin with KNOWLEDGE.” No. “Then it must begin with some kind of Holy Spirit power - I got really close to God and I finally managed to pray through,” like some religions teach. No, that is not right either. It does not even begin with LOVE. God’s Word says that the bottom step of this staircase - the step that every other step rests upon - is the FEAR OF THE LORD.

And this morning we are going to stand on that first step, the bottom step, and look at the fear of the LORD from four different directions . . . the foundation is LAID in Proverbs, the foundation is TESTED in Job, the foundation is PROVEN in Ecclesiastes - where Solomon tried every other staircase in existence and none of them gave him what he was looking for - and the foundation is CROWNED in the Song of Solomon.

Every stairway to God begins on the same first step - the fear of the LORD.

The Foundation Is Laid - Proverbs

“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” - Proverbs 4:7 (KJV)

Now if wisdom is the most important thing - the FIRST thing - then wouldn’t we agree that the wise thing for us to do is to lay the proper foundation for wisdom, so that we are building on something that will hold wisdom up?

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

Now the word “beginning” here does not mean the first thing in a long row of things . . . it means the CHIEF thing - the foundation stone - literally the part that everything else rests on. I watch the grandkids - Wyatt and Claire and Brett - building their little towers out of blocks and Legos, and that one piece on the bottom that they started with, the one underneath all the others . . . that is the BEGINNING. And if that first Lego was not there, there would be no tower, because that is the one every other piece is resting on.

So if there is no fear of the LORD, there is no wisdom - there is no nothing - there is not much of a relationship with the God who saved our souls.

And the word “fear” does not mean running away from God with our hands over our head in surrender, saying “I give up” . . . it means standing before God with our HAT in our hand. It refers to reverence. It refers to awe. It refers to the settled understanding of who God is, compared to who we are. The fear of the LORD is taking God seriously - as GOD.

Far too often we think - “Well, God saved me, and I believe in the security of the believer . . . so God is over yonder someplace, and now I can pretty much do as I please, because I know I am not going to lose my salvation.” That is not taking God very seriously - and that is not fear, reverence, awe, and respect for God.

“Is the beginning” refers to the FOOTING. Now on the surface, when I was looking at this, I thought - well, that is just the first lesson of many I need to learn to get wisdom. But it is not talking about a first lesson we learn and put behind us . . . it is that first Lego we started our tower with - the ONE thing that everything afterward is built on, and without it there would not be anything to our building. We might think, “Well, I am a Christian” - and we may be saved - but if we do not have a proper fear of the LORD, we have not built a Christian LIFE, because a Christian life is built directly and specifically on a proper fear, love, respect, and awe for the God who saved our souls.

“Of wisdom” refers to the skill of living a life pointed in God’s direction. “And the knowledge of the holy is understanding” - this is not some kind of book knowledge through an advanced education . . . this is knowing God HIMSELF - knowing His character, knowing His holiness. Knowing God personally, having a close relationship with God, is what lets a person see life clearly - so that we live with our life pointed in the RIGHT direction. And the right direction is God’s will . . . the wrong direction is my will, our will.

Most everybody here is married - and we know our spouse, we are personally acquainted with our spouse, and we live our lives letting that knowledge point us in the direction they prefer . . . so that there will be PEACE in our home. We have all heard it said - “if Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” Well, if God is not happy with the direction of our life, it does not matter what we try - we will never find the happiness we are searching for until we live in a way that lets God be happy with our lives.

When we build a house, what is the very first work that is done? It is not the walls. It is not the roof. It is the FOOTING - the foundation. The first work on a house is not done with a hammer . . . it is done with a SHOVEL - digging down past the loose topsoil until we get to something that will not move. That is the first Lego - and everything built afterward, whether it stands or falls, is sitting right on top of that buried, invisible foundation.

Now nobody drives by a new house and says, “Oh, look over there at the footing on that house - isn’t that wonderful?” But if the footing is wrong, it does not matter how pretty the house is - the shutters, the pretty curtains, none of it matters if the footing is wrong.

The fear of the LORD is the footing of the entire Christian life. And we should beware of light-houses that give out an uncertain kind of light - “Let your light so shine,” yes . . . but the world offers dozens of different kinds of salvation, dozens of foundations, and every one of them has been poured, not in a deep footing, but on top of loose ground - sometimes even on top of a sand pile.

So here is the lesson for us this morning - if life keeps cracking down the middle like thin concrete, we need to check the FOOTING. Forget about the outside, forget about the appearance - look at the foundation.

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” - Proverbs 3:5 (KJV)

Wisdom does not begin with information - wisdom begins with REVERENCE. A man can know his Bible from cover to cover and still be a fool if he does not properly fear and respect the God who wrote it.

So when our life cracks - when things are falling apart and it did not go the way we wanted it to - do we check the beauty of the shutters? “Well, I am doing this, and I am doing that, I am going to church” . . . the outward stuff? Or do we look at the footing? The first thing we need to check when things start falling apart is - “Do I have a proper fear of the LORD in my heart, in my life?” This might be God trying to get our attention, to teach us to reverence Him properly and point our life in the right direction. That is the foundation of wisdom - and without wisdom we are just wandering around hopelessly.

Now yes, if we are saved we will go to heaven - but I think we underestimate the badness, for lack of a better way to say it, of being saved “yet so as by fire,” as opposed to being saved and hearing, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

The Foundation Is Tested - Job

The second direction we look at this foundation from is the book of Job - this is where the fear of the LORD is TESTED.

Job chapter twenty-eight is the MINER’S chapter. Job describes how men will tunnel under the earth in the dark places to look for silver . . . they will dam up rivers and turn the mountains over to get at the gold underneath. And after all that digging and searching, he asks the question of the whole chapter:

“But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?” - Job 28:12 (KJV)

Wisdom is not found down in a mine. Wisdom is not found out in the sea. Wisdom is not for sale at ANY price. And then verse twenty-eight gives us God’s own answer - and by the way, it is the very same answer we found in Proverbs:

“And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” - Job 28:28 (KJV)

Now that is fine and dandy - but notice WHO is saying this, and pay particular attention to WHEN he is saying it. This is not a proverb spoken from a comfortable place in life. This is Job - and Job did not just lose one child, which would have been awful enough . . . Job lost EVERY one of his children. That is the worst part. And to add to his misery, he lost his livelihood - his cattle, which was how they made a living, that was their wealth. He lost all of his servants, so he had no support at all. And then he lost his health. He lost it ALL in a matter of a few short days - while one man was still telling him about one bad thing, another came in and told him something else bad had happened . . . one right after the other after the other.

That reminds me of the storms of life. A storm came against Job’s house in the Old Testament - just like the storm described in Matthew chapter seven . . . the rain came down, the floods came up, the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell NOT, because it was founded upon a rock. Now the house we are talking about is not a physical house, and not his circumstances - his circumstances were BAD. The house we are talking about is Job’s relationship with God. He went through all of that - and the Bible testifies, “In all this Job sinned not.” What mattered most survived the storm.

Now it is interesting - I never could find where Job found out WHY all this happened. To the best of my knowledge he never did understand his suffering . . . he never got the explanation he was asking for. But in spite of not knowing why, the first step of the staircase HELD firm under his feet - he had a proper fear, respect, and awe of the God of his salvation. Now how many of us could say this one?

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

“I am going to keep serving Him just like I always have.” So the fear of the LORD is not a fair-weather kind of wisdom. And even though you and I are not being tested to the same extent Job was tested, I know the testings we go through are not pleasant at all. But here is the lesson of the TESTED foundation - we do not need the explanation of WHY as long as we have this foundation of fearing the LORD. God has it in His control. We look at all the chaos going on in the world - God has it . . . He has not lost control.

Job had three friends who showed up - you can go read it for yourself, we are not going to this morning - and they had a FORMULA for how to solve Job’s problem. But Job did not need a formula . . . he needed a strong foundation that would stay firm. And the fear of the LORD holds - in EVERY circumstance and in every situation. That is what we see in the book of Job.

Every stairway to God begins on the same first step - the fear of the LORD.

The Foundation Is Proven - Ecclesiastes

Now in Ecclesiastes the foundation of the fear of the LORD is PROVEN. If anybody ever had enough money to test every other staircase that existed, it was King Solomon. If the answer was wealth - Solomon had it. If the answer was pleasure - Solomon tells us he tried it, everything under the sun. If the answer was learning - the Bible tells us Solomon mastered it. He built things, he did the music, he had vineyards, he had fame.

When we go back and read Ecclesiastes, it is like a lab report - a complete summary from a man who climbed every ladder this world has ever leaned against a wall . . . and Solomon found out every one of them was leaning against the WRONG wall. “Vanity of vanities . . . all is vanity” - a waste of time. Solomon tells us that all those other staircases - wealth, pleasure, learning - are no different than chasing the wind, no different than trying to grab a handful of fog. It cannot be done.

Now here is an illustration that struck home with me. Picture somebody sinking in quicksand - we have all seen it on TV - and there are a few bushes scattered around, and he is frantically grabbing at every branch he can reach . . . “If I can just get this branch, I can pull myself out - if I can just get that one, I can pull myself out.” If I could just get more possessions . . . if I could just experience a different kind of pleasure . . . if I could just get the praise of other people - you get the idea. And then when we finally do get those things, it is like every branch we take hold of breaks off in our hand, and all we have is a handful of LEAVES - and things are no different than they were before. And the deeper we sink, the more frantic we get, and the more attention we pay to the branches and the leaves . . . and we become BLIND to the hand that has been stretched out to us from the very beginning. We are concentrating so hard on what we think will make us happy that we do not even notice the hand of God stretched out right over here - and all we have to do is take hold of it.

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” - Ecclesiastes 12:13 (KJV)

This is not the opinion of somebody who missed out on things in the world. This is the VERDICT - the conclusion, at the end of his life - of a man who quite literally had every single thing this world had to offer.

Now there is one thing I want to point out in this passage - the word “duty.” If we look in our Bibles, the word “duty” is in italics, and that means it was not in the original language. That is not a mistake, and there is nothing wrong with it . . . but it makes a point that is easy to overlook when we just read right over “the whole duty of man.” Fearing God and keeping His commandments is not one of several different responsibilities we have as children of God. The Hebrew says, “this is the WHOLE of man.” Fearing God is not just a piece of our life - it is the whole of our life, which means this is quite literally what we were MADE for. People, the Bible is teaching us here that to fear God and keep His commandments is intended to BE our life. Period.

So the lesson for us this morning is that we should not spend thirty or forty years of our lives testing the same branches King Solomon already tested. The report has been made. The conclusion has already been published. We can benefit by BELIEVING the report - or we can be wounded in life by ignoring it.

“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;” - Ecclesiastes 12:1 (KJV)

Now if youth has already passed us by - and youth has passed most of us by this morning - then remember our Creator TODAY . . . because our day of grace, our day of mercy, did not pass with our youth - our day of grace is right NOW.

There are things we simply cannot know in our youth - we get a little older and think, “I wish I had known that when I was twenty.” Well, some things we CAN’T know at twenty. But what we can do at twenty is BELIEVE things we do not understand. We can open the book of Proverbs - and we cannot understand all the sayings in there, but that does not mean we cannot believe them. We can get the general gist - King Solomon tried to find happiness in all those things that are tempting me today, and he said it was all a waste of time. We can put our arms around that, even at a young age.

The Foundation Is Crowned - the Song of Solomon

The last one - the fear of the LORD is CROWNED. The Song of Solomon is a love song, and its title in the original literally means this was the BEST song King Solomon ever wrote. And we might naturally ask - “Well, preacher, what is a LOVE song doing at the bottom of the staircase, next to Proverbs and Job and Ecclesiastes?”

Well, the answer is that the fear of the LORD does not end in trembling, or even in awe . . . the fear of the LORD ends in LOVE. Fear is the first step - but fear is not the last step. The same Bible that tells us to fear the LORD tells us in Deuteronomy chapter six to love Him:

“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” - Deuteronomy 6:5 (KJV)

Reverence - fear - is the ROOT of the tree . . . love is the bloom found on that tree. And the Song of Solomon tells us what that love looks like when it is fully grown - after the bloom has turned into fruit:

“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned (despised - laughed at).” - Song of Solomon 8:7 (KJV)

Many waters cannot quench it. Floods cannot drown it. And it is not for SALE - “I am going to give you all my possessions to get your love” . . . it is not going to happen. We cannot buy love - love can only be GIVEN, and it can only be RECEIVED.

And speaking of love - there is one thing no flood has ever taken, and no flood ever will. At the cross of Calvary, many waters came against the love of God . . . the mocking, the scourging, the nails in His hands, the darkness when the sun refused to shine - it all came against Jesus on the cross, wave after wave after wave. And when the water finally went down, what was left? The love that held Jesus on the cross was still STANDING there.

“Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” - John 13:1 (KJV)

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” - Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV)

The staircase that begins with the fear of the LORD ends with us in the ARMS of the LORD.

Taking the Hand

So this morning we are in the quicksand of life - the rat race. Everybody wants to find happiness . . . that is just universal, we ALL want to be happy. So what is our definition of happiness? Is it - “If I can just get one more branch . . . one more dollar . . . one more whatever”? Or is it - “God, forgive me for not seeing Your hand stretched out to me - it was there all the time” . . . and in our heart we reach out and TAKE that hand?

And then when we do this – we realize that circumstances have nothing to do with our happiness - that is something we eventually learn, if we do have a proper fear of the LORD.

Every stairway to God begins on the same first step - the fear of the LORD.

Scripture Used

2 Peter 1:5-7 · Proverbs 4:7 · Proverbs 9:10 · Proverbs 3:5 · Job 28:12 · Job 28:28 · Job 13:15 · Ecclesiastes 12:13 · Ecclesiastes 12:1 · Deuteronomy 6:5 · Song of Solomon 8:7 · John 13:1 · Ephesians 2:8-9 (all KJV)

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Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.

Lord, Teach Us to Pray

They watched Him pray and asked for lessons . . . so the pattern He gave them is where a praying life starts.

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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.

Of all the things those men COULD have asked Him for – look at what they DID ask for.

They had watched Him still a storm... They had watched Him feed five thousand men out of a boy's lunch… They had watched Him open blind eyes – and raise the dead . . . and not ONE TIME does the record say – they asked Him to teach them to preach – or to teach them to heal – or to teach them how to do ANY of these things.

Luke 11:1 — “And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased (when the prayer ended) one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

Lord, TEACH US to pray. They asked for the one thing they had seen Him do more than anything else . . . and the one thing they knew they could not do.

And notice when they asked it. As he was praying – when he ceased… They waited for Him to finish – and then they asked . . . something about watching that Man pray made every one of them KNOW that they had never “really” done it.

So He taught them . . . and what He gave them is the most familiar passage in the Bible as well as one of the passages that is the least used of all…

FIRST — WHAT HE SAID NOT TO DO

Before He gives THE PATTERN – He clears two things out of the road.

Matthew 6:5 — “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”

They have their reward. That is a terrible sentence when you think about it… They wanted to be heard by men – and they WERE – which means that they got exactly what they were after – and that was ONLY thing they did get.

Matthew 6:7 — “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”

Prayer is NOT about much speaking – it is NOT about performing… So He has ruled out praying to be admired – and He has ruled out praying by the gallon (long prayers) – and between those two – He has cut out most of what passes for public praying.

And THEN He says something that ought to stop the question before we ever ask it…

Matthew 6:8 — “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”

He knows before we ask . . . so the asking was never about informing God . . . and we already settled in Part Two what it IS about… He appointed it (prayer is by God’s design)...

A PATTERN, NOT A SCRIPT

Now He says, after this manner therefore pray ye. After this manner . . . not in these words – but in this shape.

There is a difference between a recipe and a photograph of a cake . . . a photograph shows you one cake . . . a recipe lets you make a thousand of them – and none of them have to LOOK the same.

When Jesus showed them the MODEL prayer – He handed them a recipe… And I am not against saying the words – I have said them and I will say them again – but a man who only ever says the words – has framed the photograph – and has never turned on the oven.

WALKING IT THROUGH

Our Father which art in heaven

Matthew 6:9 — “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”

We find two things in four words – and they pull in opposite directions on purpose.

Father – refers to nearness . . . like a child walking into a room without knocking... Which art in heaven – refers to 1) distance and 2) majesty – and the fact that He is not one of us.

Get either one WITHOUT the other and our prayers go wrong… One way would be “All Father and no heaven”- which would mean we get too familiar and start treating God like a friend we can kid around with . . . “all heaven and no Father” – would mean that we get formal – and cold – and quit coming to God in prayer at all.

And then we see hallowed be thy name – which is the first request in the prayer – and it is not a request about us at all... Before a single word is said about bread or debts or anything we need – the first thing asked for – is that His NAME be held holy.

This order is not an accident . . . but most of OUR praying starts with the GIVE US bread…

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

Matthew 6:10 — “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

This is STILL not about us… This is the second request – and this request is that God's rule and God's will would run down here – the same way that it ALREADY runs up there.

And as it is in heaven is “the standard” ... In heaven – nothing argues . . . there is no delay – no negotiating – no half-obedience . . . that is what we are asking for down here – starting – I would think – in the man who was doing the praying.

Part Seven of this series – is going to take up that phrase all by itself – because thy will be done is the most misunderstood sentence in this prayer . . . most people think it is what you say – when you have given up – but it turns out – that this is the exact opposite of what it really means...

Give us this day our daily bread

Matthew 6:11 — “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Now finally – we get to a request that is about US – And look at how SMALL the request is.

Not give us this year's bread . . . not give us a barn full... BUT This day . . . daily . . . and it is bread – not cake… He taught us to ask for enough – today.

That is manna… God fed a nation for forty years and never ONCE let them stock up for later – gather today – and come back tomorrow… God was not being stingy – He was keeping them coming.

And notice it is our and us – not my and me… Every pronoun in this prayer is plural . . . there is not a single I in it… A man cannot pray this prayer honestly – and stay wrapped up in HIMSELF...

And forgive us our debts

Matthew 6:12 — “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

Bread – and then pardon… Body – and then soul . . . and the Lord hangs a hard little hinge on it – as we forgive our debtors – and then – out of the whole prayer – that is the one line that He goes back and explains:

Matthew 6:14 — “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:”

Matthew 6:15 — “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

He did not go back and explain the bread – BUT He did go back and explain this… Which tells me – it is the piece He knew we would try to skip.

And this is not about a man losing his salvation . . . this is about a man's line to God – the same kinked hose we looked at in Part One – and the one we will see later in Part Eight – that is taken up whole . . . and how a man who is carrying a grudge is trying to draw on a mercy he will not pass along.

And lead us not into temptation

Matthew 6:13 — “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

Forgiveness looks backward . . . BUT this one looks forward – it is saying – Clean up what I have done – and then keep me out of the next one.

And it ends where it started – thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. The model prayer - OPENED with His name – CLOSES with His glory… and our needs are in the middle right where they belong.

✍️ AUTHOR'S NOTE

When I compare my personal life with the pattern shown to us in this prayer – the one spot that has cost me the most – is the part about “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses (then) neither will your Father forgive (you of) your trespasses”… This is the part that I have struggled with the most… The greatest sin in my life has ALWAYS been pride – as I viewed myself just a little higher than those around me – and for years – my attitude toward those who had wronged me – was that I would put their name in a “ledger” – I would turn the page – but I refused to tear the page out… I would forgive – but I would not forget… I would be ready to find that old page that contained their debt – and open the ledger up to it again… and then I realized what forgiveness really meant – and I did not want God to keep a ledger on MY sins against Him – so that meant I could not keep a ledger on others sins against me… — C.T.

WHAT THE SHAPE ITSELF TEACHES

Stand back and look at the whole thing at once.

This model prayer is about sixty words . . . a man can say it in only twenty seconds or so . . . and in that little space of time – the Lord put His name – His kingdom – His will – our food – our sin and our safety – in that order – every time.

Now I want us to compare that to the way that MOST OF US actually pray – which is TYPICALLY... here is what I need – here is what I want – amen . . . if our praying were laid beside His pattern – the shape of our prayer would not match the shape of His prayer . . . not because we asked for wrong things – but because we started in the WRONG PLACE and never got around to the first half.

And that is the value of a pattern . . . it does not tell a man what to say . . . it shows him what he has been leaving out.

📖 FROM THE PULPIT

When I showed Haley and Sarah HOW TO DRIVE – I showed them a pattern to follow – when you stop at an intersection – always look both ways before pulling out – when you pass a slow poke – look over your shoulder because someone may already be passing you both… I taught THE PATTERN – which means that when they drove – they did not follow the exact same road that I used to teach them… they chose a different road – a different direction – a different time… but they followed the same pattern that I had taught them… They used the pattern I taught them to build a safe driving habit… likewise we can use the same pattern that Jesus taught us – to build a safe and effective praying habit… — C.T.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

The disciples asked for lessons on how to pray – and Jesus did not hand them a speech to memorize – but Jesus handed them a shape to build in.

And there is not one hard word in it – No person in this church has to be taught what bread is – what a debt is…, or what a father is… In this model prayer – Jesus gave the DEEPEST thing in the Christian life – in words simple enough for a child carry.

Lord, teach us to pray. That is still the right prayer – and the answer to it is STILL sitting in Matthew 6.

TRY IT THIS WEEK

Do not say the prayer this week. Build with it.

Take the six pieces in order and pray your own words into each one – 1) His name. 2) His kingdom and 3) His will. 4) Today's bread. 5) Today's sin – and 6) anybody you are holding something against . . . and keep me out of it tomorrow.

Do that once a day for a week, and you will find out which piece you have been skipping.

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NEXT — Part Six: What "In Jesus' Name" Actually Means. Most of us end every prayer with those words. They are not a password we tack on at the end . . . and understanding them changes everything about how a man comes.

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.