Line Upon Line

Building from Paul's words that the Lord's Supper proclaims Christ's death "until he comes," Pastor Miles surveys the biblical doctrine of the second coming and the signs of the end through Jesus' Olivet Discourse, arguing that we are likely living in the last of the last days while warning against speculation and date-setting. He calls believers to respond not with sensationalism but with holines...

Continuing his teaching on the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, Pastor Miles shows how Paul corrects the Corinthians' misuse of communion by presenting the pattern Christ Himself established on the night He was betrayed. The Lord's Supper is a divinely instituted memorial of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, to be observed regularly, worthily, and with self-examination.

Paul rebukes the Corinthian church because their gatherings were doing more harm than good — marked by divisions, social-class snobbery, and a corrupted "love feast" that mocked the Lord's Supper. Miles challenges believers to ask whether their gatherings genuinely glorify God and edify the body, or merely serve their own glory, greed, and gluttony.

Pastor Miles teaches from 1 Corinthians 11:2 that the principle of headship—Christ over man, man over woman, God over Christ—runs throughout Scripture, and that submission to God-ordained authority brings redemptive blessing while rebellion against it brings a curse. The head-covering instruction is a Corinthian-specific cultural application of this larger, enduring principle.

Paul's impassioned plea in 1 Corinthians 10:14—"flee from idolatry"—warns the Corinthian church against the danger of compromise, showing that a Christian cannot simultaneously fellowship at the Lord's table and at the table of demons. The teaching distinguishes genuine liberty in Christ from licentiousness, examines what idolatry truly is, and calls believers to live lives that can say to the wor...

Paul warns the Corinthian church against presumption by recalling Israel's exodus: though all the fathers were redeemed, baptized, and sustained by Christ, most fell in the wilderness because of unbelief and sin. Their failure stands as a written warning that liberty in Christ is freedom from sin, not license to indulge it, and that God is faithful to provide a way to endure every temptation.

Paul, though a free man, made himself a servant to all in order to win souls, adjusting his habits and laying aside his liberties to remove every barrier to the gospel while never compromising God's moral law. The teaching calls believers to embrace soul-winning as their life's purpose, becoming incarnational and missional like Christ, and to practice the self-denial and self-discipline of an athl...

Paul, though he had every reasonable right to receive financial support as a minister of the gospel, willingly laid aside that right—and other liberties—for the sake of the gospel and the salvation of others. Following the example of Christ the servant, believers are called to renounce their rights out of love so that others might be won.

Continuing in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul anticipates the question of what liberties he has personally restricted, defending his rights as an apostle—particularly the right to financial support—through a series of rhetorical questions and five supporting reasons, only to demonstrate that he willingly laid that right aside for the sake of the gospel. The lesson: love gives us the freedom to forego even w...

Teaching on 1 Corinthians 8, Pastor Miles explains how Paul addresses the Corinthian question of meat sacrificed to idols, arguing that knowledge puffs up but love edifies. The believer's liberty in Christ must be willingly laid down for the sake of weaker brothers and the evangelistic and discipleship witness of the church.

A Thanksgiving message centered on Psalm 100 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that challenges believers to make gratitude a dominating lifestyle rather than a single annual holiday. Pastor Miles works through three questions—are we giving thanks, to whom, and for what—then warns of the judgment awaiting the unthankful.

In the fifth study of 1 Corinthians 7, Pastor Miles concludes Paul's teaching on marriage and singleness, examining the preoccupations of marriage, the passions that must be controlled, and the permanence of marriage. He argues that while marriage is a blessing, singleness is also a blessing and a strategic opportunity for undistracted service to the Lord.

Paul addresses the division at Corinth over marriage versus singleness, affirming that both are good, and exhorts believers—because the time is short and the form of this world is passing away—to hold loosely to the pleasures, possessions, emotions, and even marriage of this fleeting world while seeking first the kingdom of God.

Drawing from Isaiah 62, Pastor Miles teaches that God's design for His people—first Israel, now the church—was to shine the light of His righteousness to the nations, and that despite Israel's failure, God promises a future restoration in which they will be glorified, renamed, protected, and called His delight. He then moves into Isaiah 63's coming day of vengeance, showing that before that glorio...

A verse-by-verse teaching on Isaiah 60–61 showing that Jesus is the Light of the world who calls His people out of darkness to arise and shine, and that this prophecy looks ahead to the millennial reign of Christ when Israel is glorified, the nations gather to Jerusalem, and God's people are clothed in His righteousness.

In 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, Paul gives a paradigm-shifting principle: accept the situation God placed you in and continue to serve Him there, because the gospel is not about social revolution but personal and spiritual transformation. Using the examples of circumcision and slavery, Pastor Miles shows that Christianity transcends race, class, and status, transforming individuals from the inside out a...

Pastor Miles teaches Isaiah 58–59, where God commands Isaiah to cry aloud and expose Judah's sins. Though the people kept fasts, feasts, and sacrifices, their hearts were wicked and their religious observance an empty external sham; God shows that true religion is rooted in a transformed heart that produces justice and mercy, and that sin—not divine weakness—separates a people from God.

A verse-by-verse teaching on 1 Corinthians 7:8-16 covering Paul's instruction to the unmarried, widows, married believers, and believers married to unbelievers. Pastor Miles argues that marriage is a lifelong, God-created institution, identifies the biblical exceptions for divorce, and calls believers to be transformed by God's word rather than conformed to the culture's confused view of marriage.

A verse-by-verse study of Isaiah 56–57 showing that God calls His people to maintain justice and righteousness in light of His soon-coming salvation, extends His covenant blessings to foreigners and outcasts, indicts the blind, indulgent watchmen of Judah, and promises mercy and revival to the contrite while declaring there is no peace for the wicked.

Paul shifts from confronting carnality to answering the Corinthians' questions about marriage and intimacy, teaching that celibacy is good but tempting, that married couples should not withhold themselves from one another, and that both marriage and singleness are gifts to be offered to God.

A verse-by-verse teaching through Isaiah 54 (and into Isaiah 55) showing how God turns the shame of Israel's barrenness, widowhood, and rejection into joy, restoration, and everlasting kindness — a picture of the gospel and the believer's secure inheritance in Christ. The message presses every Christian to find this same testimony of revived barrenness and to receive freely the living water and wo...

Paul corrects the Corinthian church's misapplication of his teaching on Christian liberty ("all things are lawful"), showing that genuine freedom in Christ does not license sexual immorality. Because believers are members of Christ and their bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, bought with a price, they are called to flee fornication and glorify God in body and spirit.

Pastor Miles teaches Isaiah 52 and the suffering-servant prophecy that begins in 52:13 and runs through chapter 53, showing how God calls his sinful people out of self-inflicted captivity into a costly-yet-free redemption secured by the Messiah. The teaching unfolds the public glory of God's salvation and the believer's call to carry the beautiful gospel of peace to the world.

Paul rebukes the Corinthian church for taking trivial disputes between believers before secular courts, damaging the church's unity and witness. Pastor Miles teaches that, since Christians will one day judge the world and angels, we should be able to settle such matters internally through righteous, meek, forgiving, biblical judgment—even if it means accepting wrong.

Studying Isaiah 50 and 51, Pastor Miles shows that Judah's suffering was not God forgetting or unjustly divorcing them, but the harvest of their own sin—God remained near and able to save. The latter half of the passage turns prophetically to the Messiah, the suffering servant given the tongue of the learned and an obedient ear, whose example calls believers to trust God, speak gracious words, and...