Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

One of the temptations that naturally comes with God’s blessing is that of thinking that you got that blessing by your own strength. We imagine that the blessings are just out there for the taking, and, hey, I woke up early, I stayed up late, I used my resources in the right way and that’s how I got where I am. 

The previous section of this letter ended with Paul being lowered from a city wall in a basket, a humiliating departure. In this next section Paul describes being carried up into the highest heaven, providing a stark contrast indeed. This boast was necessary because apparently the false apostles were trumpeting some of their ecstatic experiences, and this required a response.

The Gospel we preach is potent because it restores in Christ what was ruined in Adam. Throughout Scripture, high and lofty theological discourses are often followed by “now husbands.…” Or “teach these things to you children.” This sets doctrine in the midst of community; and marriage is the fundamental building block of community. Modern redefinitions of marriage are like a contractor substituting...

If you would grow in godliness, it won’t arise from any other source than Christ Himself. You must be rooted in Christ’s redeeming grace, in order to make any progress in sanctifying grace. As you prepare to look at your own heart, remember to measure by the eyes of faith using the Word, not with some custom made measuring stick of morality.

Paul asks us to excuse him while he speaks as a fool, but he does not consistently get into that character. He keeps breaking voice to remind us that he is being sarcastic—because he really doesn’t want us to think that he is actually taking any glory for himself. There are parallel lines of boasting here. In the first instance, he indicates that he fully able to meet the false apostles on their o...

Text: Hebrews 11

Enjoy this session for women from our recent Marriage Seminar in Moscow, ID. Learn more about Christ Church at christkirk.com.

Enjoy this session for men from our recent Marriage Seminar in Moscow, ID. Learn more about Christ Church at christkirk.com.

Enjoy this session for married couples from our recent Marriage Seminar in Moscow, ID. Learn more about Christ Church at christkirk.com.

The situation needed to be pretty dire in order to get Paul to talk about himself in a boastful way (even if the boasting was sarcastic), and we see in this passage just how dire it was. The Corinthians had been infiltrated by emissaries of Satan, the Lord of Lies himself, and some of the believers there were still under the influence of those lies.

Text: Hebrews 10:19–39

The fundamental difference between Paul and the false apostles he was combating is that he surrendered to a standard from outside the world, and they submitted to a standard that arose from within. And when I use a word like standard, we are referring to both law and gospel. What is the standard for evaluating appropriate behavior? And what is the standard to telling men how they might be saved?

Text: Heb. 10:1–18

As we come to chapter 10 of this epistle, we need to be reminded again of who the players are. We have the majority of the Corinthian church, and they are on Paul’s side—even though a number of them had just recently been brought back to Paul’s side by means of his “severe letter.” In the opposite corner were the false teachers, who had instigated the rebellion in the first place. And then we like...

This is a beloved Psalm which demonstrates the maturing faith of David in his later years and trials. This Psalm is vivid. Surprising. It is memorable, and it is a wonderfully balm to the aching heart.

If God is seeking to grow us up into a particular kind of person, then He is going to provide us with whatever is necessary to accomplish His intention in that. God has no goals for us “in theory,” but somehow unprovided for. The telos of our lives is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29; Phil. 3:21), to have grown up into a particular kind of person. The last day will not consi...

Text: Heb. 9:16–28

One of the great lessons that we must learn is that God is far more generous than we are. Often, when we are confronted with scarcity, it is the result of our own greed, laziness, unbelief, and so on. When this starts to happen, we clutch at what we have even more, which perpetuates the downward cycle. God is the God of abundance, and the thing that corrupts the resultant affluence is something th...

When preachers preach about money, it is too often the case that they focus on how the rank-and-file believers ought to be handling their money. But if we follow the lead of Scripture, and especially Paul, we will find ourselves talking about how preachers ought to collect money. And how they ought not to.

Text: Luke 2:25–35

As you all know, it is our custom sometime around the first of the year to give a “state of the church” message. Sometimes it relates more to the condition and challenges of the national church, and other times the emphasis is more local. This year, for reasons that should become obvious, the observations and exhortations will be more local.

We’ve looked at Joseph & Mary the embodiment of the best of Faithful Israel’s longing for God to bring salvation. We’ve looked at the Wicked Dynasty of Herod which the text of Scripture intends to be viewed as the incarnation of Man’s Satanic Rebellion. But now, we must look at the babe which was born a child, and yet a King. The Lord Jesus.

Here is your Christmas invitation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Christ is Lord. Give up your unbelief. Lay down your arms. A prophet does arise from Galilee.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the great Dragon-slayer, and in Him, the birth of a race of dragon slayers. So lift up your heads. Lift up your hearts. Christ is born. The Seed of the Woman has come. The dragon has been mortally wounded, and you have been set free. So take up your arms. Confess your sins. Forgive one another. Rejoice and sing and celebrate. This your testimony, and by...

These days leading up to Christmas should be a crescendo of celebration. It shouldn’t be a descent into a legion of carnal indulgence. Whether it be to partake to the point of drunkenness, snap with annoyed anger at your children or spouse, scroll aimlessly down the dark corridors of the Internet, or bemoan some degree of loneliness, you must not invert the celebration of Christ’s Incarnation into...