Look at the Book

The good works God brings about through our lives are a means he uses to increase our knowledge of him.

How does one walk in a manner worthy of the Lord? Value him in your work, in your play, in your worship.

How can I know God’s will for my life? How can I live a life pleasing to him in everything I do?

Pray for fellow believers that they might grow in Christian maturity, that is, that they would know God’s will and walk in a manner pleasing to him.

Understanding all the Bible says about God’s will requires one to think in two categories: the sovereign will of God and the moral will of God.

Through prayer, we participate in God’s ongoing work of strengthening the saints and bringing them to full maturity.

Prayer and careful thinking about God aren’t separate activities. Prayer should precede theology; theology should inform prayer.

Faith in the promises of God overflows in love toward others by the gracious working of the Spirit in the heart.

The gospel is not static. It increasingly advances throughout the world and grows in the heart of believers.

A gospel presentation that stops at the forgiveness of sins has missed the ultimate aim of the gospel, namely full and forever joy in God himself.

The gospel is not just a truth to know, but a truth to be embraced and loved and taught and proclaimed.

Faith that truly embraces the hope laid up in heaven reveals itself through good works that are done in love.

Moses could renounce the pleasures of Egypt because of his coming reward. In the same way, Christians reject the world and put all our hope in Christ.

Our hope laid up in heaven includes forgiveness of sins, a dwelling in the kingdom of Christ, and an inheritance in light.

Jesus’s sonship is not like ours. All the benefits we enjoy as sons come to us through the only-begotten, eternal Son of the Father.

The people who have God as their Father are the recipients of his inheritance, namely, boundless grace and perfect peace.

Prison, for the apostle, was not a time for pity parties, but for productive labor on behalf of local churches.

Every believer is someone who has already been made holy through his union with Christ by faith.

The apostle mentions his fellow ministers, in part, to show how important relational dynamics are in the exercise of Christian authority.

What we read in the apostles is not mere human wisdom, but wisdom taught by the Spirit.

How might you summarize Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians? In this lab, Pastor John makes an attempt.

Peace is precious. Peace is to be prized. But peace is not to be pursued at any cost.

The aim of holy ostracism is to cause shame in a fellow believer so that they might turn and walk in the light.

There are at least five significant implications from Paul’s command to the Thessalonian church to “eat your own bread.”

God created mankind for good works. When he makes us new in Christ, his purpose remains the same.

When someone sins against us, Christians are not always called to turn the other cheek.

Pastors ought to be paid for their labors, but they should never give the impression that they labor for money.

Christians must have a category for shaming other Christians so that they might repent and be reconciled.

Hearts that remain firm through trials don’t depend on their own strength, but hang on the steadfastness of Christ.

Disobedient churches deal lightly, if at all, with flagrant disobedience. Obedient churches consistently practice church discipline.

The deepest ground of God’s faithfulness, to his word and to his people, is his faithfulness to his own self.

God works through prayer to establish and guard us in the faith. Prayer is the lifeline by which he holds us fast.

Prayer is an offensive weapon and a defensive weapon. Do you utilize it in both ways?

The apostle Paul wants Christians to subjectively experience the comfort that is already objectively ours in Christ.

The church ought to preserve traditions that evidence biblical fidelity — and discard those that elevate our ways over Scripture.

Christians stand firm by holding to the truth, depending on God in prayer, and hoping in his promise to keep us.

God’s call to his people is not merely a call to salvation. God’s call is for us to share in his glory.

Are we becoming more like Jesus by the power of the Spirit? If not, we have reason to question whether our faith is real.

True salvation entails both faith in the truth and sanctification by the Spirit. God choosing us doesn’t render either irrelevant.

The particular, electing love of God from before the foundation of the world is the reason why anyone becomes a Christian.

Scripture says that the church will face terrible pain and opposition at the end. Why would God allow his people to suffer?

Satan’s efforts to lead people astray from the truth do not happen apart from God’s plan and design. And yet, many will fall away.

The alternative to belief in the gospel is not merely unbelief, but a deep love for unrighteousness which opposes truth.

Satan wants all of us to yawn at truth and salivate for sin. We must persistently resist him and cling to Christ.

Signs and wonders can serve both truth and deception. We should trust what we see in the Bible above what we witness with our eyes.

The man of lawlessness has an appointed time and an appointed end which Jesus will bring when he returns.

God sets the times and seasons. He has appointed a time for the man of lawlessness to appear. He is in full control.

What is the temple of God in which the man of lawlessness takes his seat? This lab explores two possible answers.

Lawlessness is the rejection of any authority. It exists in every sinful heart, and it will reach full expression in the man of lawlessness.

Rebellion and lawlessness characterize every age in a fallen world, but they will crescendo before the return of Christ.