When God’s people borrow the world’s religious vocabulary, they soon borrow the world’s religious ideas; faithfulness therefore requires that we hold the pattern of sound words and call Bible things by Bible names. This is a lesson about words, and someone will object that words are…
All authority in religion belongs to Jesus Christ; therefore His word, and His word alone, settles every religious question, and to refuse to hear Him is to be cut off from the people of God. Every religious dispute, when traced to its root, is a dispute…
Holy Spirit baptism was a specific divine promise, administered by Christ, poured out on the apostles at Pentecost and on the household of Cornelius to open the door to Jew and Gentile — not a general experience to be sought, and not the baptism commanded of…
The New Testament speaks of five different baptisms, but only one is the commanded baptism in force for sinners today; rightly dividing the five guards us from both neglect and counterfeit. A single word can carry several meanings, and nowhere does that cause more mischief than…
A study from Luke 2:34–35; Matthew 26:26–30; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:23–29 on Worship. Ed Rangel examines the New Testament pattern for the local church and its scriptural foundation.
Many younger Christians have never heard the word *institutionalism*, so the issue needs to be stated plainly. Institutionalism is the practice of the church doing its work through human institutions, organizations, or centralized arrangements that are not found in the New Testament pattern. In simple terms, it is when men build structures larger than or separate from the local church in order to do work God assigned to the church.
What is Hades? This lesson shows from Scripture that Hades is the temporary realm of the dead, not the final lake of fire, not purgatory, and not the end of consciousness. The dead remain conscious, their condition is fixed, the resurrection is still future, and judgment still lies ahead. Christ entered Hades but was not abandoned there. Therefore men must stop speaking loosely about death and get right with God now.
In this sermon “Do Not Be Misled,” Jesus opens Matthew 24 with a clear command: “See to it that no one misleads you.” He does not give His disciples a prophecy chart or permission to panic over wars, famines, or upheaval. Instead He warns against deception, false christs, and fear-driven interpretation, calls His people to endurance through tribulation, and reminds them that the gospel will advance exactly as He promised — even as judgment fell on Jerusalem.
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. James 4:6–10 is not soft advice for religious people. It is a call to surrender, repentance, and real submission before God. Pride puts a man in opposition to God, but humility opens the floodgate of greater grace. This sermon presses the hearer to submit to God, resist the devil, draw near to God, and humble himself before the Lord.
God invites honest conversation: “Come now, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18). He calls us to face sin, repent, confess, and align with His truth—not tradition or pride. Will we listen and obey?