This warning from the Lord establishes the terrifying possibility that one can acknowledge Jesus verbally and intellectually yet be rejected at the judgment for a lack of obedient action.
Burdens are not all curses; God uses some to strengthen us, commands us to share others, and invites us to cast on Him the ones no man can carry — and wisdom is knowing which burden is which. We treat every burden as an enemy to…
Content: Planning without God is arrogant boasting, and James calls it evil. Ecclesiastes reminds us that God appoints the times, and James warns that life is a vapor. The faithful alternative is humble submission: “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” This lesson calls us to repent of self-rule and bring every plan under the Lord’s authority.
Sin did not begin in the field—it began at the altar. Cain’s fall was a progression: unbelief in worship, pride under correction, and hatred of righteousness. God warned him that sin was crouching at the door, ready to rule him, but Cain refused to master it. The result was not just a broken relationship with his brother, but bloodshed and separation from the presence of the Lord. This sermon exposes the “way of Cain” and calls every listener to examine worship, respond rightly to Scripture’s correction, and submit to God before sin grows into death.
A Christian is not merely a good person, a religious person, an Old Testament saint, or a church member, but one who has become a new creature in Christ — dead to sin and risen to new life through faith and baptism, a citizen of the…
Nothing can hurt us if we receive it as God teaches. No one can do us real harm if we remain faithful to God. The six categories of life experience that most commonly cause damage — temptation, sickness, pleasure, sorrow, slander, and the general experiences of…
Saving faith is never cheap or static; it always moves into concrete, costly obedience. Through Abraham and Rahab, James shows that faith which does not lay something real on the altar is dead and cannot save.
Everything in Christianity hangs on faith — “without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:6) — yet faith is one of the most misunderstood words in religion. Some make it a leap in the dark; some make it mere opinion; some make it a…
Pardon is not a vague benefit distributed in unspecified ways; it is a specific restoration to a specific condition, given through specific means authorized by the specific person who has the right to grant it. There are two laws of pardon: one for the alien sinner…
“Do they not blaspheme the honorable name by which you have been called?” (James 2:7). The name by which the church has been called is the name of Christ. The names the New Testament gives to those who bear that name — disciples, servants, soldiers, saints…