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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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.

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

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

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

► Watch this lesson on video (56:43)

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

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

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

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

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

The Fence They Moved

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ten Rooms - the Spirit on the Inside

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Free - Not Guilty

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

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

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

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

The Life of Faith Is a Continuing

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

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

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

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

Please consider what you heard this morning.

Scripture Used

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

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Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.