Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

We are seeking to recover a Christian sense of time and history, and in some sense this means a recovery of the church year. But though we are seeking to escape a secularized calendar, we must never forget that we got this secular calendar (in part) because of a reaction away from the problem of “saints days glut.” And this means we cannot just be aware of the problems with ourimmediate past. We h...

Guest preacher Pastor C.R. Wiley at Christ Church Downtown.

The law of God is like math. It doesn’t care about anybody’s hurt feelings. It is straight, and hard, and cold, and altogether righteous. But at the same time, when this cold, cold law is resurrected in the body of Christ back from the tomb, it comes to us as burning love. And this is why we preach cold law and hot gospel.

This message was given by C.R. Wiley at New Saint Andrews College's Disputatio. The last several years, Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for our Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, we are accepting free will donations at christkirk.com/give . Be sure to select 'Grace Agenda' in the form.

Every time we say the Apostles’ Creed, we confess that we believe in the forgiveness of sins. This is reasonable we might think—isn’t forgiveness of sin the entire point? Yes, it is the entire point, but it is also part of the point that this forgiveness is entirely grace, and must never be considered an entitlement. It is not something we deserve. And remembering this is tougher than it looks.

1) How are we to understand and imitate Paul’s striving? – What is the difference between Justification and Sanctification? 2) How does this represent maturity of mind for the Christian? – What does constant use look like? 3) What’s so important about citizenship? – How is this linked to being “led by the Spirit of God” as sons of God?

In this famous section of Proverbs, the father exhorts his son, “forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments” (Prov. 3:1), with the promise of length of days, long life, and peace (Prov. 3:2). How can a human father, a fallen, fallible father say such a thing? We see something perhaps equally puzzling in Paul’s repeated use of the phrase “my gospel” (Rom. 2:16, 16:25, 2 Tim. 2:8)....

The Glory Behind Unity (John 17:22-23) Being made perfect Testimony to the world Manifestation of God’s love The Mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5-8) Common purpose Common Spirit Common humility and suffering The Road to Like-mindedness (Gal. 2:20, Phil. 2:12-13) New identity in Christ Working out our salvation in fear and trembling God working out my salvation The Outcome of Belief and Obedience (Phil. 2...

In a recent article entitled, Shame Storm, a writer chronicles how true and false accusations of wrong doing combined with the internet and social media have mixed together to create storms of shame: One person commented on a situation, “I think nobody has quite figured out what should happen in cases like his, where you have been legally acquitted but you are still judged as undesirable in public...

Hospitality is one of the basic Christian duties. It is a central duty because it embodies the gospel of Jesus. At the same time, because it ought to embody the gospel, it is worth thinking through carefully so that we are not thoughtlessly embodying a false or distorted gospel.

27 Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. 29 For to you it has been grant...

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,...

First we must begin with a statement of our problem. Many glorious truths were recovered in the Reformation, and one of them was the doctrine of vocation. Unfortunately, this is part of our Protestant heritage that we have shamefully neglected, and have almost lost. One of the principal indications that we have lost this doctrine is that we speak so easily and readily of “full-time Christian work,...

There was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, committing abominations, following idols, and stirred up to great evil by his wife Jezebel. And yet when Ahab humbled himself before the Lord, the Lord relented from the immediate judgment he had promised. This story reminds us that God’s merciful kindness is great.

"But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even fr...

As Reformed Christians, we naturally think in terms of covenants. We do this when thinking about our salvation, and the covenant of grace, and we also do it when it comes to some of our horizontal relationships—we have a rich understanding, for example, of the covenant of marriage. And related to marriage, we also think of the family in covenantal terms. We are covenant families; our children are...

"Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being co...

“Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in san...

The world is only a complicated place when we are drifting lazily into the confusion wrought by sin. Think about it for a moment. There are two kinds of people in the world—sons of God and sons of the devil. There are two destinations, and only two, toward which we are all traveling—the resurrection of life and the resurrection to death. There are only two ways of living—clean and dirty. There are...

As you know, it is our custom to present a “state of the church” message every year around this time. Sometimes the message addresses the state of the church generally, as in, across the nation. Other times, like today, the message concerns particular issues that pertain to our congregation.