A Christian should be committed to one local church—attending, serving, giving, connecting, and receiving pastoral oversight there. Regularly using several churches’ programs as a spiritual cafeteria can weaken that commitment and take resources intended for those congregations. Listening to sound preaching from other pastors is different. It is no more inherently disloyal than reading a …
Pastor Mike and John MacArthur shared the same basic theological convictions on most major doctrines. Both came from conservative Baptist settings and reached similar conclusions about the gospel, including opposition to versions of “free grace” teaching that weaken the biblical relationship between genuine faith and a changed life. Their agreement was substantial enough that Pastor …
Someone who speaks in the first person as though God is delivering a personal message claims the role Scripture assigns to a prophet: serving as God’s mouthpiece. God is truthful and infallible, so a prophecy attributed to him cannot be excused as an ordinary, well-meaning mistake when it fails. The modern idea of a “fallible …
Second Peter 2:3 describes greedy false teachers exploiting people with deceptive words. Older language about “making merchandise” means treating followers as goods to be used for the teacher’s own advantage. Money is an obvious example. A preacher may tell people what they want to hear, soften biblical commands, and continually solicit funds so that the …
A preacher cannot emphasize every observation in a passage. The first task is to identify the central proposition—the main subject and what the text says about it—and allow that idea to govern the lesson. In Psalm 89:30–37, the central emphasis is God’s steadfast, covenant-keeping love. The passage acknowledges the disobedience and discipline of God’s people …