Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

INTRODUCTION The children’s rhyme about sticks and stones is actually one that is wildly off the mark. Scripture teaches us that the tongue is one of our most potent organs. When we walk with the Lord, our wholesome speech is a tree of life (Prov. 15:4). If we are given over to evil, the tongue has the capacity to burn down entire forests (Jas. 3:5-6). This psalm gives us a close look at the destr...

Ungodly comparison comes pretty easily to us. It’s like an annoying habit that someone doesn’t realize they have until someone points it out. Comparing ourselves isn’t the problem, rather it’s the objects of our comparison. Ungodly comparison formulates either a disappointed view or an over-inflated view of yourself; and either way creates a toxic brew of strife & rivalry with those whom you’re co...

A central aspect of this community that we are seeking to grow is hospitality. We believe in welcoming strangers, feeding the hungry, and befriending the lonely. It was not good for man to be alone in the beginning, and that was not just talking about bachelors; it was talking about community. We are talking about the work of the Spirit in the Church, conforming us more and more into the image of...

If you haven’t noticed, there’s less elbow room in our services than there used to be. The extraordinary growth our community has experienced in the last 2-3 years is truly a great blessing. In this we see the kindness of the Lord in gathering together faithful saints for the hard work of reformation. But as with any blessing, if it is met with ingratitude or is received without evangelical faith,...

Introduction  This psalm might be considered a hymn to the omniscience of God (vv. 1-6) and omnipresence of God (vv. 7-12), as well as a hymn to His creative artistry (vv. 13-18), along with a thoughtful meditation on the ethical ramifications of God’s holy nature (vv. 19-24). The Text “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest m...

On this day and throughout this season, we say, He is risen/He is risen indeed! Our mouths are full of this blessing. And so it is that God would have us, His people, have resurrection mouths, Easter mouths. Mouths full of resurrection blessing and life. But it’s so easy whether by long bad habits or surprise disappointments or festering bitterness or anger for our words to be ugly, biting, resent...

Resurrection isn’t an anomaly in this world. Rather, resurrection is the wiring behind the sheetrock. It was hidden for ages and generations. However, the entire arc of Old Testament history was anticipating the moment when God would throw the switch to illumine the whole world with the light of His life.

INTRODUCTION I am fond of saying that grace has a backbone, but I think it is time to explain what I mean by that. The context of these remarks is the general and current ongoing discussion about the worrisome trajectories of all those incipient legalists and antinomians out there. The incipient legalists are the ones the incipient antinomians are worried about, and vice versa. THE TEXT “Wherefore...

INTRODUCTION On this festal day, we remember, we commemorate, we celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ our Lord rose from the dead. Death no longer has dominion over Him, which means that He is entirely and utterly out of death’s reach. Not only so, but the same thing can be said of all who were—by faith—made partakers of His death. We have also be raised with Him. This is the import of Easter. Thi...

The thing that made the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus necessary was our sin, but because of the depths of the wisdom of God, and the work of the Spirit here with us now, we are enabled to see the gospel ironies that deal efficaciously with us and our sins. When Jesus, the life of the world, was brought bound before the Sanhedrin, that life was the aroma of death to them. And when we come, bound pr...

Now the saints do pass through dragonish places. But the death of Christ, his descent into Hades, and his triumph over the principalities and powers has radically transformed things. We go through dragonish places after Christ, not before. Jesus took up the cross. And we must also. But Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me." He did not say, "Take up your cross and lead they way, I've got y...

Humility isn’t timidity, shyness, or insecurity. Humility is thinking of yourself in accordance with what God says about you.

INTRODUCTION Over the years, I have mentioned a number of times that there is no good biblical reason to use the hosannas! of Palm Sunday and the crucify him! of the Passion account as proof of the fickleness of crowds. We have no reason for assuming that the make-up of the crowds was in any way identical. But because we are living in a time driven by mass movements, it is past time for to develop...

The kingdom of God cannot grow and flourish without farewells. The Lord commanded us to preach the gospel to every creature, and this cannot happen unless some people are called to go away when we would prefer that they stay.

The enemies of the church have effectively wielded the weapon of irreverent mockery. Pop culture has relentlessly pilloried sacred things as objects of scorn for decades. Sit-coms make dads the butt of every joke. Late-night comedians guffaw over puritanical sexual ethics. These modern court jesters mocked sacred things, with no reverence shown whatsoever. But their irreverent jokes landed because...

INTRODUCTION One of the central things we are called to do is praise the works of the Lord. But the glorious thing is that we are also called to remember that we are ourselves the work of God. God’s wisdom is so intricate and ingenious that He can create works that are capable of praising His works. And that is what we are. THE TEXT “A Psalm of David. I will praise thee with my whole heart: Before...

Modern conservatives have been shocked to find out that by thoughtlessly sowing their kids into government schools, they’ve reaped a harvest of godless statists. But there is a warning here for us. By and large, recent generations have abdicated their parental duty to educate their children due to disengaged & distant parenting. In a community committed to families providing a Christian education...

So our position on church membership is that at the very least there ought to be two lists of names: a list of elders and a list of members. And the people on the two lists need to know one another well enough and there needs to be enough interaction between them that members can consider the way of life of their leaders and imitate their faith as it says, and the leaders need to know their people...

INTRODUCTION The Bible teaches that our bodies are temples, houses that God intends to live in (1 Cor. 6:19). And the Church is a holy house, a temple built out of God’s people, filled with the Holy Spirit, and together we are also the Body of Christ (Eph. 2:15-22, 1 Cor. 3:9-17, 12:12-27, 1 Pet. 2:5). In Adam, mankind is a sin-diseased house that God cannot dwell in, but the promise of the gospel...

INTRODUCTION This psalm begins with a heartfelt lament, and concludes with a savage benediction. This apparent incongruity has been a trouble to many Christians, and so we need to take care as we meditate on, and worship by means of, a psalm like this one. THE TEXT “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst...

Sinners want us to rush along in their conspiracy to shed-blood. This is one of the tell-tale signs Solomon gives us of foolish men (Pro. 1:10-12). Sinners are also selfish cowards, who want to save their own skin (Pro. 22:13, Num. 13:32-33). Christians, regardless of the season, regardless of the news, worship the Risen Christ. This makes us bold in battle, stubborn in our determination to fight...

INTRODUCTION Part of what the leprosy laws proclaim to us is that the central, highest calling of man is to worship his maker. Worship is central. Worship moves the world. When God restores men and women to worship, He is restoring their humanity, which in turn, by His grace, restores the world. Christ is saving the world by drawing the world to worship. THE TEXT “This shall the law of the leper i...

INTRODUCTION This psalm rotates around the hesed of God, coming back to it every other line. This word hesed can be translated any number of different ways—kindness, faithfulness, covenant loyalty, tender-mercies, and the like. The AV supplies the verb endureth every other line, but that is not in the original. The line literally is “for his hesed forever.” THE TEXT “O give thanks unto the Lord; f...

We do not bring our children along through this service with the end goal simply being keeping them quiet by all means possible – even if it feels that way sometimes. They are with us because we want our children to grow up in the Lord, worshiping him with all the saints from their earliest memories.

INTRODUCTION One very common problem that Christians have in their Christian lives is the problem of spiritual clutter. Many Christians don’t know what to do with various unresolved sins and problems, and so they do nothing. Over time these problems accumulate, and before long there is a real mess. You have seen this phenomenon in various places, have you not? It happens in closets, it happens in...