God Is Light — Three Lies and the Truth

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday evening service, October 11, 2026 1-2-3 John · Unit 2 · 1 John 1:5-10

► Watch this lesson on video (40:58)

---

Three Lies and the Truth

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

Well, it is good to have the opportunity to be here again this evening. This is the second lesson on First John - and you remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about the Apostle John and how he was an eyewitness there in Ephesus. He kept talking about how he had literally SEEN Jesus with his eyes and touched Him with his hands. And we learned why John wrote this first letter: its purpose was so that those who read it would have the same kind of fellowship with God, with Jesus, and with one another that the Apostle John had with God, with Jesus, and with his fellow worshippers . . . and also so that our joy in Christ might be FULL.

We talked about fellowship - and when we hear that word we think, “Oh, we are going to go drink a cup of coffee, we are going to go eat a meal.” Well, in the days in which this was written, the word actually referred to PARTNERS who own something together. The example we used was this: it is supper time, and I am acquainted with the family, I am acquainted with the cook . . . and the door is cracked open and they stick me a plate out through the crack in the door, and I sit out in the yard to eat. As opposed to - they open the door and invite me in, and I sit down at the table with the rest of the family. Now that is two types of fellowship, and one is quite a bit closer than the other. And that is the idea here, people . . . we can be a saved, born-again child of God, just as saved as the Apostle Paul, and have a DISTANT kind of relationship with the God who saved our souls - or we can have a very close fellowship with the God who saved our souls.

The Message John Heard

This evening we are going to begin with chapter one and verse five, and notice that verse five mentions “the message.” Now he is talking about the message that he is reporting.

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” - 1 John 1:5 (KJV)

So John is telling us that the message he is putting down in this letter is not something he sat down and thought of, and it is not the result of his studies over several different years. The message he is giving is something he HEARD - these ears heard it directly from the mouth of Jesus Christ. This is coming directly from God.

Now “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” - well, what exactly is that supposed to mean? If Jesus is light, then, “Preacher, what about people like me that have a lot of shadows, to put it politely? What about people like me who possess a lot of darkness in my life? If God is light, what kind of shape does that put me in? Does that mean I am lost? Does that mean I have to keep doing something in order to drive the shadows away so that I will not become lost?”

Well, we are going to read all of these verses - one John one, five through ten.

“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” - 1 John 1:5-10 (KJV)

Notice here there is an “if we say . . . if we say . . . if we say” - and an “if we confess.” Now the one point of our lesson this evening is this:

GOING DEEPER · THREE LIES AND TWO TRUTHS

Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study.

Look at how these verses are built. Verse six is a lie . . . and verse seven is the truth. Verse eight is a lie . . . and verse nine is the truth. And verse ten is a lie - and then the chapter stops. That is three lies and two truths, and John answers the third lie in chapter two.

God is not asking for a perfect record - God is asking for an honest walk.

God is asking that we avoid these three lies, and not say these untrue things in an effort to build ourselves up in our own eyes and in the eyes of others.

In God Is No Darkness at All

Now we are told here that in God there is no darkness AT ALL. This is significant in the language this was written in: John uses “no” twice - he doubles it. John doubles the “no” he uses in this verse, and I will tell you what that means in just a second. According to the source I looked at, John used the strongest way possible for the language to say NONE. There is no darkness in Jesus Christ or in God at all. And if we go to James one and seventeen, we read where there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” - James 1:17 (KJV)

Now the significance of this - think about the difference between light and darkness. Light shows what is actually THERE. If God is light, doesn’t God’s word show us what we really are? You see the connection there. Light shows us what is actually there. A lot of times, especially with kids in the house, we play pretend a lot - that is just something Grandpa and the kids do. But when you turn the light on and everything in the room is clearly exposed, you cannot pretend anymore. You cannot pretend there is a boogeyman over here in the corner when the light is on. “Grandpa, there is no boogeyman in the corner - I can see.” So light takes the pretense completely away.

Darkness, on the other hand, is the opposite of light - and it does the opposite THING that light does. Light exposes . . . darkness hides. It is easy to pretend something that is not true in a place of darkness. So walking with God - notice the way this scripture words it: “If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” So walking means that if we follow God’s will, if we allow God’s word to expose what we really are, then we are walking out in the open . . . we are walking where there is no place to hide. If we are not walking with God, then we are walking in the shadows - we are walking in darkness.

GOING DEEPER · WHEN THE POWER GOES OUT

Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study.

For you little ones - when the power goes out at night and the house goes black, the first thing Mama does is find the flashlight. And when that flashlight comes on, whatever is on the floor shows up - the toys, the shoes, the dog. Well, God is a light that never goes off, and nothing in God’s house stays hidden.

Now why would we choose to walk in the darkness instead of in the light? There is a scripture - I think it is John chapter three, you can correct me - that says they avoid the light because their deeds are evil. I am not quite sure where that is. Is that John third chapter or not? I do not know - the preacher is not the only one that does not know about it. But you see, if we choose to point our lives in that place of darkness, we do so because we are trying to HIDE what we are. If we choose to walk in the light as He is in the light - in other words, walk so that the truth shines on our life and shows us what we really are - well, then we are not trying to hide anything. Notice what this scripture says: if we confess our sins, if we agree with God that we are sinful, we are not trying to hide anything.

It is like the Apostle Paul talked about the law being our schoolmaster, drawing us to Christ. If God’s word did not expose what I really was, then how would I ever become aware of my need for God? When I got sick with my cancer - if I never felt bad, if I never suffered, I would never have gone to the doctor and I would have died. So pain and suffering, we do not like it . . . humility, we do not like it . . . shame, we do not like it. But without some of these negative things we would never be aware that we were in need, and if we never understand that we are in need, we would never seek a Savior. I mentioned this morning about the mountaintops and the valleys - you sort of see what I am getting at. It is just impossible for us to always remain on those mountaintops, and the valleys are just as necessary, or even more so, than the mountaintops.

“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” - Hebrews 4:13 (KJV)

Naked - that is, completely exposed - and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

A Shadow Needs Something in the Way

Now think about a shadow. In Him is no shadow, neither variableness or turning . . . in Him is no darkness at all, not even any dim places. A shadow is the result of something standing between an object and the light. And you will notice, just the way it is by nature, a shadow ALWAYS points AWAY from the light. A shadow never points toward the light. You see the significance of that in our lives? If we are walking in darkness, if we are looking for shadows to hide things, we are going in the complete opposite direction of the light.

And the sun never casts a shadow on itself. Well, “Preacher, that is kind of a duh.” But again, that is an example teaching us there is no darkness on the truth. In fact there are no DEGREES of truth . . . there is no such thing as a half-truth. If God is light, God is truth, and in God there is no darkness at all. That means there is no half-truth, and there is no “well, this is true under this circumstance, but under this circumstance over here the truth can change.” It does not work that way.

The Bible tells us there are three that bear record in heaven - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Well, “in him is no darkness at all” teaches us that there is nothing in between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There is nothing that blocks the light of the Father from reaching Jesus Christ . . . nothing that blocks the light of Jesus from ever reaching the light of the Holy Spirit, and then all the way back around.

Now you remember there were some individuals in the churches in the days of John, there in Ephesus. These individuals were promoting the error that Jesus was not here physically - He only SEEMED to be. Their reasoning was that the physical part of the world had to be dirty, and there was no way anything physical could be clean and righteous. So Jesus, being God - being God in the flesh - could not have been here in the flesh, because the flesh is sinful. Well, these individuals claimed to walk with God. They claimed to be in the light . . . and while walking in the light of God, they also kept a hold of their darkness. They put their hands tight around the error they were promoting. And what John is simply saying is this: you can say what you want to, but darkness and light cannot exist in the same place. They cannot exist together.

GOING DEEPER · WHOSE WORDS WERE THESE?

Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study.

The false teachers in those churches taught that sin belonged to the body - to the low, physical world - and that the ones with the “higher knowledge,” or the saved soul, had gotten above all that. So “we have no sin” was not something John made up. That was their SLOGAN. And when John says “if we say . . . if we say . . . if we say,” he is quoting their own words back to them, one at a time, and holding every one of them up to the light.

Three Things People Say

Now there are three things people say in the verses we were looking at, verses five through ten. “If we say we have fellowship but . . .” and then they give an excuse. “If we say we have no sin” - that is a lie. And “if we say we have not sinned” - that is also a lie.

So notice first John one and six, the first one we look at.

“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:” - 1 John 1:6 (KJV)

What these individuals are doing is putting the label of Christianity on their lives and DIVORCING the label from the life. They are pretty much saying, “My being a Christian really does not have anything to do with my behavior or my manner of life.” Well - duh. Can you not see the inconsistency in that mentality? Now the walk they are talking about, to walk in darkness - once again, the purpose of this evening’s lesson is that God is not looking for perfection, He is looking for basically honesty. There is not a one of us who can honestly claim that we never walk in darkness, or places of less light, or places that are shadowy. What this is talking about is not sinless perfection . . . it is talking about the PATTERN of our life.

I have been walking for over sixty-eight years. There has been an occasion or two when I have stumbled, scraped my knee, fallen flat on my face. But the pattern of my life is that I am walking upright on my feet. That is the pattern of my life - my life is not defined by the few times I have stumbled. That is the idea here: the pattern of our life, not the fact that we stumble.

You ever go to the supermarket and stand there in front of the magazine rack and pick out a magazine and look at it? Well, how is that different from SUBSCRIBING to that magazine and getting it in the mail regularly, once a month or twice a month? There is a difference between a subscription and “I am just going to look at this magazine one time.” There is a difference between patterning our life after our pet sin - subscribing to whatever it is - and just a one-off. Folks, none of us are perfect. We have all been guilty of picking one off the rack and looking, just one time. Well, to walk in the light is to subscribe to RIGHTEOUSNESS.

So the pattern it is talking about is not just a bad day. It is not talking about the individual who stumbles and says, “Oh, man, I hate that I stumbled.” It is talking about when you WALK in darkness - the individual who has a paid subscription for the foreseeable future to whatever it is.

Then verse eight - the second lie.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” - 1 John 1:8 (KJV)

Now the second lie fools the person who is telling the lie. The first lie is intended to fool OTHERS - to make me appear different from what I really am. With the second lie, I am actually deceiving my own self. It is like this: “Brother Kenneth, I have not subscribed to this magazine - I just borrowed yours.” And just because I borrowed it and did not really subscribe, that is not the same thing - that is different. You see the pattern? I am patterning my life after error, whether I borrow that error or whether I subscribe to it . . . but in my own mind I am deceiving myself, because I justify it. I have not officially bought into whatever sin it is that is leading me astray. A classic example of that - I remember a past president we had who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and he just redefined what sin was and made the problem go away - or at least tried to. That really does not work.

And the third lie - and this is really the worst one of all - verse ten.

“If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” - 1 John 1:10 (KJV)

Now notice what it says: we make Him a LIAR. Who do we make a liar? We contradict God. We can fool others, we can fool ourselves, and we can contradict God by subscribing to this way of life that is in error.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” - Romans 3:23 (KJV)

Romans three and twenty-three pretty much nips this in the bud. Every person who has ever been born could put their name right there - erase “all” and put their name there - and it would be one hundred percent valid. “For Fred has sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “For Bobby has sinned and come short of the glory of God.” You get what I am saying? To say otherwise is to tell God, “You were mistaken.”

I have got an example here that I thought was kind of cute - I was kind of proud of it myself. A pretend FENCE. Let’s just get a herd of cows and pretend that there is a fence around those cows. Do you think the cows will stay in that field? Well, I am going to live my life and just pretend that I am righteous. Do you think that is going to do any good? The only one I am deceiving is me. And the way to realize we are just pretending the fence is there . . . if we go out at midnight on a new moon and walk where we are pretending that fence is, well, we can convince ourselves that the fence is really there. But if we go out at noon in broad daylight and walk in that same place, the pretending will not work. God is light. And if we look at God’s word, we will see ourselves exposed as we really are - which may not be comfortable, but it is NECESSARY, because if we never see our sin, we will never seek a Savior from that sin.

So God is not asking for a perfect record . . . He is asking for an honest walk.

The Truth - Walk in the Light

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” - 1 John 1:7 (KJV)

First of all, if we walk in the light - if we pattern our life after God’s truth - we will have fellowship with one another, at home and in church. And the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all sins. Now on the surface you may say, “Well, preacher, that sounds like after we get saved we have to do good stuff to maintain our salvation.” The idea here is that you have to understand this is talking to the FAMILY. Now you remember what the purpose of the letter of First John was. The gospel of John, I am going by memory here - “that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” And then First John - and I may have my Johns mixed up, forgive me if I do - is so that his joy in you may be full . . . so that your cup will be full and STAY full. Well, how does that cup stay full?

GOING DEEPER · THE MASK WE WEAR IN THE CHURCH DOOR

Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study.

Walking in the light gives us two things. The first is fellowship with one another - not just fellowship with God, but with each other, at home and in the church. And fellowship means partners who own something together. Well, nobody can be partners with a MASK.

Suppose I walk into the church with a smile on my face and anger in my heart. When we go into business with someone, when we put our name on the title next to our partner, we expect them to have skin in the game - just like we have something to lose. People, if I am unwilling to practice in my life - or at least TRY to practice - what I preach from the pulpit, how can our partnership in this church be genuine? And if we are wearing a mask of hypocrisy - and I am not talking about an occasional stumble, I am talking about a subscription to one of the three lies - then we are not in fellowship with God, and we are not in fellowship with each other, and we will not be until we CANCEL the subscription.

All right, I have always been kind of bad about this - I will dip my spoon into the soup and I have to concentrate really hard, because I have always had a little bit of a tremor, and if I am not careful I put as much food in my mouth as I possibly can. I am a horribly impolite eater. But I have got this spoon, and it is holding all the liquid I can possibly put on it. Well, if I start trembling, that liquid comes out of the soup. For our joy to remain full - if I take my eyes off of Jesus Christ . . . you remember what happened to Peter. He was sinking in the water until he did what? Until, “Lord, save me.” Jesus reached out, and when he saw the Master, he quit sinking. Well, when we take our eyes off of the truth, this cup of joy starts shaking, and what was a full cup, some of it starts splashing out.

Now I want to correct a possible misconception. The Bible is not telling us that if our joy ever gets full, it is going to stay full no matter what. It is telling us that we CAN have a full, complete joy. And if we walk in the light, that cup will remain full . . . it will not spill over, empty out, and we will not get the tremble. It remains topped off.

So if we walk in the light we will have fellowship one with another, each other, at home, and also His blood will cleanse us from all sins. The blood KEEPS ON cleansing. Now we are not talking about our salvation - this is addressed to the family, and it is talking about fellowship, not sonship. So if we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus constantly cleanses our life, so that if we are a Christian today and choose to walk in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ will give us the strength and the motive to be a Christian tomorrow. That kind of thing.

The Confession

Now one John one and nine. I want to say this is really important scripture - but what scripture is not important?

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - 1 John 1:9 (KJV)

To confess does not mean to pull out a list and name everything we did wrong. The first thing wrong with that is that it is not possible - we cannot possibly know all the wrongs we do. We sin ignorantly. We sin in ways we do not even realize. To confess is to SAY THE SAME THING that God says about our sin. “Well, preacher, I just made a mistake.” It was not a mistake - it was a sin. “Well, preacher, you just do not know what I was going through. I was sort of justified in that.” I do not have to know what you were going through. No, you were not justified in that - God says it was a sin. “Well, preacher, I am not as bad as they are.” Well, you may not be, but that still does not excuse our sin. Confession is when we stop hanging a “but” on the end of an excuse.

The kids mess around in the kitchen, and they come in the living room with chocolate all over their face. “Mom” - or Sarah, or Granny - “have you been in the cookie jar?” Well, why would you ask a kid if they have been in the cookie jar when it is so obvious they have? It is to get the child to realize, “Well, maybe I should not have done that. I probably should have asked permission for that.” That is pretty much what David did. We are not going to go there and read it, but in the Fifty-first Psalm, David pretty much got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. We cannot get our hand out of the cookie jar until we ADMIT that it is in the cookie jar. We cannot remove our hand from where it should not be until we realize, “My hand should not be there.”

GOING DEEPER · DAVID JUST AGREED WITH GOD

Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study.

God already knows - and confession is us finally saying what God has known all along. That is exactly what David did. Psalm 51:3-4 - “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” There is no excuse at all in David’s confession. David simply agreed with God that he had SINNED.

And it says that God is faithful and just, if we confess our sins. To be FAITHFUL means that you can count on God to keep His promise - if we agree with Him about our sin, He will forgive us. And to be JUST means that the price for that sin we committed has already been paid. First Peter two and twenty-four - there is a little comment I want to make.

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” - 1 Peter 2:24 (KJV)

It would not be right, it would not be proper, it would not be fair, it would not be according to the law for God to hold you and me accountable for sins that have already been paid for. He is faithful - He will keep His word and forgive - and He is just. He is not going to hold me accountable for a debt that He already paid on the cross.

GOING DEEPER · ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS - THROUGH THE WHOLE HOUSE

Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study.

And notice what God cleanses - “all unrighteousness.” God does not just cleanse the one sin we named in our confession. The named sin opens the door . . . and the cleansing goes all the way through the entire house, the complete life.

So not to confess our wrongs does not mean that we become lost. It means we are still saved. But what it is telling us is that we have stopped minding our Heavenly Father. And once again, first John one and nine is written to the FAMILY. If we confess our sins - who confesses? The family confesses - He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now one John two and one:

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” - 1 John 2:1 (KJV)

Oh, he is writing us this letter so that we can live perfectly sinless lives? No, he is writing it so that we can AVOID sin. If we do not avoid sin, we have an advocate - a go-between that will take our sins and argue on our behalf, so that we can escape judgment, because that sin has already been paid for. Now that does not mean we are going to avoid consequences, because we set things in motion - that is just the way life is.

GOING DEEPER · FELLOWSHIP KEPT OPEN

Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study.

A guard here, so no one misreads it. Verse nine is written to the family of God. Verse nine keeps FELLOWSHIP open . . . it does not buy back being His child. A child who sins is still a child - 1 John 2:1. And neither is verse nine a formula for the lost to say in order to get saved - or “re-saved.” The lost come to salvation by repentance toward God and faith in the Son, not by some act of naming their sins.

The Operating Room

I will leave you with this thought, and try to be honest. In terms of confession - “Well, I did this, but . . .” - is there a “but” hanging on the back end of our confessions? Now this is not a threat so that we have to be afraid we are going to become lost. It is an INVITATION to step into the light, to see what our problems actually are so that we can go to Jesus for forgiveness. What this is designed to do is to show us that our hand is in the cookie jar where it has no business. And once we admit that, once that is exposed to us by the light of God’s word - “Oh, my hand should not be there. Oh, thank You, God, for showing me. Forgive me” - that is what God is looking for.

I have asked the musicians to come forward as we prepare for an invitational hymn this evening . . . but one other example, talking about God is light. I suppose most everybody has either been in an operating room or knows a little bit about one. An operating room has lights that will just blind the fire out of you . . . just real bright. Well, why is that? So the doctor can see to cut out every little bit of what is wrong. We understand that you would not want a doctor operating on you in a dark operating room, would you? Well, why are so many so intent on living their lives in the dark? God’s word is the light, and the light is intended to expose what should not be there - not so that we can reach in and cut ourselves, but so that we can take that to God in prayer and ask Him for forgiveness, and ask Him to remove the cancer of sin - or however you want to phrase that.

GOING DEEPER · THE QUESTION TO TAKE HOME

Not preached on Sunday evening - extra study.

God already knows we do not have a perfect record - His Word says so: “For all have sinned.” God is not waiting for us to get everything right before He forgives us or before we start following Him. He is simply looking for somebody who will agree with Him. I am only going to ask one question tonight, and I do not want you to answer it out loud: is there anything we are still keeping in the dark . . . and not calling a sin?

Please consider what you heard this evening as we stand and sing.

Enter His Gates — Thankfulness Is Worship’s Front Door

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday morning service, October 11, 2026 Give Thanks · Lesson 1 of 7 · Psalm 100

► Watch this lesson on video (36:38)

---

Thankfulness Is Worship’s Front Door

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

Well, it is good to see each of you in our services this morning . . . and we are going to talk this morning about how important it is to be THANKFUL. I want to start with a verse that shows us just how important being thankful to God actually is.

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” - Romans 1:21 (KJV)

Now it is interesting to note that one of the very first things Jesus named, when a people drifted away or turned their back on God . . . was how that people became UNTHANKFUL. We have all heard about that house built upon the sand in Matthew chapter seven - well, the idea here this morning is that thankfulness is pretty much the FOUNDATION that is holding our lives together. Our life is either built upon the sand - we understand the metaphor there - or our house is built upon the rock. A house built upon the sand will collapse when things get stormy . . . a house built upon the rock will stand. And if we are thankful to God in our lives, well, it goes a long, long way in strengthening the very foundation of our lives.

Notice the One Hundredth Psalm, verses one through five.

“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.” - Psalm 100:1-5 (KJV)

Now we see five verses that we just read, and there are SEVEN commandments in these five verses . . . and right smack dab in the middle of those commandments is the commandment to enter into His gates. How? With THANKSGIVING. So the one point of our lesson this morning is this:

Thanksgiving is the way into the front door of all worship.

The point there is that we cannot worship with an unthankful heart.

The Gate Is What Comes First

Now you will notice here in the scripture that the gate is what comes FIRST. Look at verse four.

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” - Psalm 100:4 (KJV)

Enter into His gates - not empty-handed. This sets up a picture of the way they worshipped back yonder in the Old Testament. The Jews went to the temple, and the first thing they encountered was the GATE. Well, when we come to worship God on Sundays and Wednesdays, what is the first thing we encounter after we get out of the parking lot? It is the front door. So I want you to picture the gate as pretty much the same thing as our front door - and they entered the gate of the Old Testament temple not empty-handed, but carrying thanksgiving.

And when we walk through the door of this church house, do we walk in empty-handed? Typically we are carrying our Bibles with us when we walk through that door. So that is a picture I want you to put in your head: the Old Testament saints went through the gates of the temple carrying thanksgiving . . . just like we walk through that back door, hopefully carrying our Bibles. And after we walk through that door carrying our Bibles, where is the next place we go? We carry our Bible into the auditorium, where we offer worship to God - where we praise God as opposed to praising one another. In the Old Testament they did it the same way every single time, and they did not deviate from it, just like we do. In order to get into the auditorium to offer worship, you have to go through the door.

Well, the idea is that the worshipper is supposed to carry something into the worship service. He is supposed to carry a thankful HEART . . . and he is supposed to carry an attitude of praise. You see, thanksgiving is equal to a thank offering - or at least it was, back in the Old Testament temple worshiping days. It was a gift to tell God, “Thank you, God.” And that is the idea behind the phrase, “enter into his gates with thanksgiving.” Do not come empty-handed. Do not come to this church house with a blank mind - “Well, what has God ever done for me? What in the world do I have to be thankful for?” When you go through that door, go through it with an attitude that you have already begun to count your blessings . . . “I am coming here to worship a God who has already blessed me this way, and this way, and this way, and this way.”

If we enter this church house with that attitude, I guarantee you our worship will go a great deal better . . . our worship will be a great deal more pleasing to God than if we come through those doors not carrying thanksgiving, but carrying a LIST of stuff that we want God to give us. You see the difference in attitude? Come through the gates of the house of worship carrying a thankful attitude - not just a wish list.

Notice the Order

Now I want you to notice the order here. Let’s look at verses seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen of the One Hundred Sixteenth Psalm.

“I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, In the courts of the LORD’s house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.” - Psalm 116:17-19 (KJV)

You will notice the way that is worded - he OFFERS thanksgiving. And once again, the idea of thanksgiving is a thank offering. You know, we pass the plate and you put a dollar or whatever it is in the offering plate, and we always think, “Well, that is the offering.” But in the days of the Old Testament they actually brought SACRIFICES . . . and the first sacrifice they gave was an offering that represented their thankfulness to God. So picture that. And notice the order: “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.” I am going to tell You how thankful I am before I even start praying. I am going to tell You how thankful I am before I start pointing to my wish list.

So I simply want to reinforce the concept here that before one request was ever made to God in prayer, the worshipper entered into the door of a house of worship with an attitude - in this case, with a literal offering of thankfulness - and THEN he went into the auditorium to offer praise unto God.

GOING DEEPER · THE WORD BEHIND “THANKSGIVING”

Not preached on Sunday morning - extra study.

The word the psalmist uses for “thanksgiving” in verse four is the Hebrew word for the THANK OFFERING. It is the same word the Law uses for the offering a worshipper carried up the hill in his own two hands - a gift that said one thing and one thing only, “Thank You for what You have already done.” And the little heading above the psalm - “A Psalm of praise” - reads in the Hebrew “a psalm for the thank offering.” So when we read “enter into his gates with thanksgiving,” we are not reading about a feeling . . . we are reading about something carried through the door.

“Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.” - Psalm 95:2 (KJV)

The Back Door to the Want List

Now, most of our praying - and I am just being honest, I am looking at it from my own perspective - most of our praying comes through what I am going to call the BACK door . . . straight to the want list. What I mean by that is that we skip the front part, the thanksgiving part. Notice Philippians chapter four and verse six, and we are going to go back to the Eighty-ninth Psalm in just a second, so you might want to put a finger in the Psalms.

“Be careful (full of worry) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” - Philippians 4:6 (KJV)

Be careful for nothing - now that means do not be full of worry, do not be anxious about anything. And the thing that is intended to take that anxious attitude away is this: “but in every thing by prayer and supplication WITH THANKSGIVING” - thanksgiving for what we have already been blessed with - “let your requests be made known unto God.”

I always try to come up with examples that are everyday relatable. We do not do horseback rides anymore, but we all know what that means and we see it on TV all the time. Well, picture my want list to God in prayer being carried on the back of a horse . . . and what do you think that horse is? The horse is the attitude of THANKFULNESS. If thankfulness is not there, my wish list to God has nothing to carry it. Can you think of it that way?

Here is another way. If you spend any time over in Russellville you are going to get stopped at the train tracks - and what is typically at the front of the train? The ENGINE. Well, thankfulness should typically be at the front of our prayers. And what is at the back end of a train? The caboose. Oftentimes we get the two reversed and we want our wish list to pull everything . . . and if we have time, and if we are having a good day, “Oh, well, thank you, God, for my good day.” Does that mean we are not supposed to be thankful when our day is not good? Last time I checked, the Bible says that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose - now, there are some conditions in there, and I am doing that from memory, but that is close. The idea is that if we have a good day, well, yes, God has a hand in that . . . but if we have a bad day, God also has a hand in that. You remember the song - I am not going to go there - but it makes a valid point: the God on the mountain is the same God that is in the battle.

God’s Front Porch

We live in a rural community - say “rural” three times, that is one of the most difficult words there is to say - and if you go to a neighbor’s house you go up on the porch and say, “Hey, how you doing?” You have some little small talk, and THEN you get down to what you really went over there to visit with your neighbor about. Nobody who expects to get what they are needing just jumps up on the front porch, throws the door of the neighbor’s house open, goes inside, and says, “Kenneth, now this is what I want you to do.” That is just not the way it is done. If we ever did something like that, it would show that I did not have a whole lot of respect for Kenneth . . . I was not concerned about being courteous, and this is Kenneth’s house, and I am not honoring him at all - I am just barging in there making demands.

GOING DEEPER · RESPECT SHOWS UP AT THE DOOR

Not preached on Sunday morning - extra study.

Respect for God does not wait until we have found our seat - it shows up right at the door. Psalm 89:7 - “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.” The fear of the LORD we stood on last Sunday morning - that deep respect for who God is - is the very thing that makes a man stop at the porch and say hello before he asks for a single thing.

Notice the One Hundredth Psalm again, verse four. Enter into His gates with WHAT? Thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise - be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. Well, the idea of our example about barging in the front door and making demands is this: verse four is describing God’s FRONT PORCH. And thanksgiving is the greeting we are taught here to give to God out on the front porch, before we ever enter the door of His church house.

Now, is that the way we approach worship? Let’s put it this way. Do we walk through that door back there with a Bible in our hand, intent on worshiping and praising God? Or am I going to leave my Bible out in the car and bring a magazine in - I am going to go through that door intent on looking at this magazine while that preacher gets up there and goes on and on and on? You see the difference? Do we enter into His courts with thanksgiving . . . or do we enter into His courts empty-handed, carrying something we value in the flesh and leaving what is valuable to God on the outside? How in the world do we expect to worship if we enter into church with that kind of attitude?

I just want to throw a cautionary note out here. I am not talking about the possible loss of our salvation, people. I am talking about God’s saved, born-again children. It is possible for a child of God to have an attitude of thankfulness for everything God has done for them . . . or it is possible for that same child of God to ignore everything God has done for them and simply live a selfish life in terms of this world. Such a child will not lose their salvation - but they will lose all the BLESSINGS that God desires to give them.

Back when I was growing up, I liked TV probably a little bit too much when I was younger. And I remember on the rare occasions when company did come to see us, the first thing Daddy did, while they were still out in the yard before they ever got in the house, was turn the TV off. Well, what was that for? It was a show of respect - this person has come to visit, and I am not going to spoil our visit by watching television and ignoring the visitor. So when we come through that door and settle down here in the auditorium to worship God, are we like watching television in our mind? Are we thinking about all the stuff that is going on out in the world and ignoring whose house this is? I have got a news flash for you . . . God can read our minds, folks. You may fool the preacher, you may fool the person sitting next to you, but no man is able to fool God.

Something else I have noticed at our house - the kids come over, and the first thing the kids do is sometimes one thing and sometimes another. They hit the door and the first thing they say is, “Where is Granny? Where is Granny? I want to give her a hug.” Oh, that is a good thing, right? But sometimes they go through the door and the first thing they say is, “Where are the cookies? Where are the cookies? Where are the cookies?” And they put Granny’s hug in second place. Well, my point is that oftentimes we do the same thing with God. We come to church looking for COOKIES, when the first thing we should do when we come to church is hug God’s neck and thank Him for what He has done for us.

GOING DEEPER · FOR THE ONE WHO CAME IN HURTING

Not preached on Sunday morning - extra study.

This is not a rule that says God will not hear a prayer that skipped the porch. Peter, sinking in the water, did not stop to say thank you first - he cried out, and he got no lecture on manners. Matthew 14:30 - “But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.” The gate of thanksgiving is the pattern for our daily walk . . . it is not a lock on the door for the one who is desperate.

So when was the last time we went to God in prayer and did not ask Him for anything . . . when the only purpose for our prayer was to say, “Thank You, God”? When is the last time we prayed that kind of prayer? Once again, thanksgiving is the way into the front door of all worship - we cannot worship without thanksgiving.

We Are Thankful Because of What We Know

Now, another thing that is interesting . . . why are we thankful? In regard to our relationship to God, and the things we are talking about here, we are thankful because of what we KNOW. Look first at verse three of the One Hundredth Psalm.

“Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” - Psalm 100:3 (KJV)

Know ye three things. Now, has someone ever done something really good for you, really nice to you, and you benefited, but you did not know who that person was? You did not know who to thank. Or perhaps you were just so busy with life you did not even notice anybody doing anything good - you just trudged on through life. Well, you never singled anybody out to thank them because you were ignorant of what they had done for you. That is the stage I want to set here, and that is the point I want us to realize. If we are unthankful to God, there could be several reasons - we could just be rebellious, mean, whatever, selfish - and that is one lesson. But what I am talking about this morning is this: if we are unthankful to God, is it perhaps because we are IGNORANT of what God has done for us? We do not know that God has paid off the mortgage. We do not know that God has done this, this, or this. If we knew who it was, we would single them out and thank them. The purpose of the lesson this morning is so that we will know what God has done, and perhaps that knowledge will move us toward a thankful heart.

Thanksgiving is basically a CONCLUSION, if you will - a conclusion based upon things we have been made aware of in our lives. You cannot thank that neighbor for something he did while you were away if you are unaware of what your neighbor did for you. There are three facts that should draw us toward being thankful, and all three are mentioned here in verse three.

Fact one: the LORD, He is God. God is the one who spoke all things into existence. God is the one who has the power - literally the power of life and of death. Don’t you think it is appropriate to be thankful to that God?

“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:” - Isaiah 45:5 (KJV)

I have done good things for you, and you do not have a clue who I am . . . well, that is on us. The point is there is no one else for us to thank.

Fact two: God made us on purpose. “It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” He made us on purpose, in His own image. Well, what do you mean by the image of God? There are three that bear record in heaven - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost - and we are made in God’s image. We have a mind, we have a body, and we have a spirit. We think with our mind, we feel with our body, and our spirit is the part that has life. We could chase that further, but we are going to stop there. And the Bible tells us that God created the earth to be inhabited - inhabited by who? To give US a home.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” - Genesis 1:27 (KJV)

Don’t you think God deserves a thank-you for making us - for giving us a place to live?

Fact three: we belong to Him. We are the sheep of His pasture. Now this is kind of against our culture - we do not know a whole lot about shepherds and sheep - but basically a shepherd is the individual who literally takes care of the sheep. Sheep are not like a bunch of cows. Sheep, I have read, are about the dumbest animals on the earth . . . just dumb as a box of rocks. Well, the shepherd takes care of those sheep, and that is what the shepherd does. And the PASTURE is the field where the shepherd feeds the sheep.

So let’s transition from an agricultural scene to a spiritual scene. Jesus is the Great Shepherd. We are those dumb sheep. And where does Jesus feed us spiritually? Does the New Testament church pop into anybody’s mind? That is the pasture . . . that is the field - the area where the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, feeds us as His sheep. So you might wonder, “Well, what is the purpose of the church?” If you want to spend your life hungry, okay, then spend that life as a child of God OUTSIDE of the church - because the church is where the feed is.

A thankful heart is aware of all three of these facts: the LORD is God . . . He has made us, and we did not make ourselves . . . and we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. We possess a thankful heart because we are aware of what God has done for us. Now, if you are aware of what God has done for you and you just do not care, well, that is a whole different kettle of fish, and we are not going to go there this morning. But if you are a saved, born-again child of God and you are made aware of just some of what God has done for you, then you cannot help but develop a thankful attitude toward God.

GOING DEEPER · WHO BOUGHT THE GROCERIES

Not preached on Sunday morning - extra study.

Think about a child at the supper table. That child did not buy the groceries . . . did not cook the meal . . . and did not build the table it is sitting at. Nothing on that table is a result of anything he did. But a child who has been raised right - raised to respect God and to respect his mama and daddy - says “thank you” anyway. Not because he feels like it on that particular night, but because he knows where the supper actually came from. It was a GIFT. The thanks we offer comes from what we know about the kindness and the mercy of God.

And the sheep have more to be thankful for than just the pasture. They have the Shepherd - because of how the Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep. John 10:11 - “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” And everything a sheep needs comes from the Shepherd. Psalm 23:1-2 - “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” We can always look past our circumstance to the circumstance of the cross.

Thankfulness Does Not Depend on the Weather

Let’s look at verse five.

“For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.” - Psalm 100:5 (KJV)

I have seen this so many times I have lost count. Everything is going good, we are on the mountaintop, and, “Oh, I am thankful to God” . . . but that thankfulness evaporates when we are no longer on the mountaintop and we are down in the valley. Thankfulness is not dependent upon circumstances. The God we love, serve, and are thankful to on the mountaintop is the exact same God who is in charge of everything when we are down in the valley. God’s purpose is not to keep us on the mountaintop - God’s purpose is to teach us, to mold us, to shape us into what we need to be. Sometimes we need that mountaintop experience, but we also need those valley experiences.

I am thinking of a sculptor, or a whittler. I want to whittle this stick of wood and make a certain shape, and I cannot shape that wood without cutting something OFF. We cannot be shaped into the Christians God desires us to be without ever having something cut off of our lives. So feelings come and feelings go . . . but God’s goodness, mercy, and truth are always strong, and they are always available to us. Is our thank-you something that is built upon how our week has gone - or is our thank-you built upon who God is, as the One who is holding our particular week?

The Homework

I have asked our musicians to come forward as we prepare for an invitational hymn, and I am going to give you a homework assignment. I am putting before you the idea that every prayer you offer this week, you offer that prayer through the gate of thanksgiving.

Now, I am going to go through the prayer . . . and I want you to recall to your mind what you are thankful for. Pick THREE things. And not just general stuff - “I am glad to be an American,” or whatever - but, boy, I dodged the bullet on that one. Anybody ever been there? Well, who do you think nudged you over so that bullet did not hit you? I am speaking metaphorically. What about that person - “Preacher, I just could not have done that without so-and-so”? That is a blessing from God, and that is something we should be thankful for. What about when circumstances just kind of start falling in around us, and, “Man, I never expected that to work out” . . . but you know, it did? Duh. These are things we should be thankful for.

GOING DEEPER · THREE THINGS, NAMED PLAINLY

Not preached on Sunday morning - extra study.

When we said to name three things before we ask for one, we meant specific things, not general ones. Name the MERCY God extended to us this week - the one we know for certain we did not deserve. Name the PERSON who helped us, who was a blessing to us this week. And name the PROVISION we received - the help that came in just when it was needed. “I could not have made it through the winter with that hole in my roof.” That kind of thing.

And here is what we will find out, if we do this assignment. The worshipper who comes in through the gate of thanksgiving is a person who is already worshiping by the time he gets to the courts . . . and half of what he came in to complain about looks entirely different from inside the house of worship. So which door have we been coming in - the front door or the back door?

And one other little caveat. I do not know how y’all do at mealtime, but what we should all do when we sit down and put our feet under the table is pray out loud - thank God for the meal, and thank Him for His blessings. If you do not do that, I strongly encourage you to begin doing it. And for those who have little children - where in the world do you think they are going to learn how to pray if we do not teach them? If Mom and Daddy never pray in front of them, how are they ever going to learn to pray, or what to pray for? It would not hurt a single thing for your children at the supper table to hear Daddy pray out loud, “God, thank You for the food, and thank You for that neighbor who really helped me get out of that mine. I do not know what I would have done without their help.” There is nothing wrong with that. Nothing to be ashamed of . . . and that is not being Pentecostalish.

Have you ever been upset because somebody came up to you and said, “Thank you for what you did”? Has it ever rubbed you the wrong way? Well, have you ever been a little upset because somebody OWED you a thank-you and it never came? Do we really want to offend God like that? I would a lot rather God be glad that I thanked Him than a little bit put out with me because I did not thank Him. “Oh, well, I am thankful, but I am too ashamed to say it out loud where other people can hear.” We need to pray about these things.

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)

---

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)

---

Every lesson is kept on the Lessons 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)

---

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)

---

Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.

The Go That Never Stops — What the Great Commission Commands

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

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

► Watch this lesson on video (43:20)

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What the Greek Actually Commands

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Comfort, a Crowbar, and Antioch

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

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

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

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

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” - Acts 13:2 (KJV)

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Rope - How an Arrived Church Goes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Check Your Grip

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scripture Used

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

---

Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.