Thomas Boston and Christ as Savior

The Father has appointed Christ as Savior of the World

“Our Lord Jesus Christ is the official Saviour, not of the elect only, but of the world of mankind indefinitely; so our text calls him ‘Saviour of the world.’ Agreeably to which, God in Christ is called ‘the Saviour of all men,’ but with a speciality, ‘the Saviour of them that believe,’ 1 Tim. iv. 10. The matter lies here: like as a prince, out of regard to his subjects’ welfare, gives a commission to a qualified person to be physician to such a society, a regiment, or the like; and the prince’s commission constitutes him physician of that society ; so that though many of them should never employ him, but call other physicians, yet still there is a relation betwixt him and them ; he is their physician by office; any of them all may come to him if they will, and be healed: So God, looking on the ruined world of mankind, has constituted and appointed Jesus Christ his Son Saviour of the world: he has Heaven’s patent for this office; and wheresoever the gospel comes, this his patent is intimated. Hereby a relation is constituted betwixt him and the world of mankind; he is their Saviour, and they the objects of his administration: so that any of them all may come to him, without money or price, and be saved by him as their own Saviour appointed them by the Father.”

The Complete Works of Thomas Boston, Vol. 6, pp. 297-298, Jay Green edition, 2001.

Preacher, do you preach openly, forthrightly, indiscriminately, saying—“Jesus is your Savior”? By Boston’s reasoning, we’re to be bold and loving; we’re to tell all indiscriminately, “Here is your Savior—the Lord Jesus,” and, “God has given Him, appointed Him, for you.” Or do we pull back afraid that we’ll put a dagger into the heart of the doctrine of election? Or that we’ll string up by its thumbs the doctrine of Christ’s definite atonement?

I do not know the way that God will work, and with whom He will work to save. I want to hold out the Lord Jesus and His saving mercies to all. I like what Boston says, “…they are the objects of his administration.” I’m game. That’s what I want to do. I want to speak directly to them—they are the “world of mankind; he is their Saviour.” His secret plans and His secret ways belong to Him.

G. Mark Sumpter

Playing Triple A Ball

Come again...What did you say?

What is God like? We say Triune (In one God there exists three Persons). We say Immanent (He is near). We say Transcendent (He is far). There are many times when what we say to express what God is like, we succeed!—we use Biblical terms and explanations coming from the Bible. We use terms and we readily understand.  Things hum along. When we do theology this way, we are using cataphatic speech—we say what we can say about God in appropriate ways: our grammar, comparisons and contrasts, and expressions are on target. On the other hand, there are times when we sputter. We know limitations of our grammar and expressions. When we search, when we grope, and when we’re in neck deep, we say things in an apophatic way—“well, let me tell you what I don’t mean… and that’s right too…..God isn’t like that either… and yes…you’re right again….. the Bible doesn’t mean that.” Sometimes our words do not quite pinpoint how to speak of God who is higher, greater, and loftier beyond our human comprehension. Here we say, “What I’m trying to say is He really is more unlike—He’s quite different—than this thing or idea in the world.”

“He is our rock (Psalm 18:2); and yet…. He’s not exactly a rock.”

Cataphatic—more positive words we use.

Apophatic—more negative words we use.

BIG terms—cataphatic expressions of God and apophatic expressions.

G. Mark Sumpter

Calvin on the Rocks

McNeill Edition of the Institutes, p. 255 A Calvin Crack-Up

MAN HAS NOW BEEN DEPRIVED OF FREEDOM AND CHOICE...

“The Perils of this topic: point of view established, I

1. We have now seen that the dominion of sin, from the time it held the first man bound to itself, not only ranges among all mankind, but also completely occupies individual souls. It remains for us to investigate more closely whether we have been deprived of all freedom since we have been reduced to this servitude; and, if any particle of it still survives, how far its power extends. But in order that the truth of this question may be more readily apparent to us, I shall presently set a goal to which the whole argument should be directed. The best way to avoid error will be to consider the perils that threaten man on both sides. (1) When man is denied all uprightness, he immediately takes occasion for complacency from that fact; and, because he is said to have no ability to pursue righteousness on his own, he holds all such pursuit to be of no consequence, as if it did not pertain to him at all. (2) Nothing, however slight, can be credited to man without depriving God of his honor, and without man himself falling into ruin through brazen confidence. Augustine points out both these precipices.”

Sumpter: Do you get what J.C. is saying? Two points of a dilemma. 1) You tell man he is broken, crushed, rebellious and tied up in knots, dead in sin—an altogether true biblical maxim. Man, then, says, “what gives…why try for God then?...it’s all doubt, so let’s sack out… I’m done, wake me up when it’s over….” To reverse paraphrase Robert Schuller, old Crystal Cathedral Bobby, of the 80s, “Since man is all scars, then, forget the stars.” That’s dilemma side one. Now, 2. If you tell men about seeking God; if you grab a kettle and metal spoon and start clanging into the tomb and Lazarus rolls over and hits the snooze button to get up and listen for the VOICE, then----you give man some brownie points. He’ll say, “Look, the water is not that bad after all… and….. “Look Mom, no hands…” or “Whadda mean depravity…I can hear the voice of God blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back….” J. C. says, give man an eyelash of self-generated strength and he’ll take the industrial strength biceps of Ray Lewis of the Ravens for good-credit, heaven-bound righteousness …. “…nothing can be credited to man without depriving God of his honor.”

So how does Calvin fix the problem?

“Here, then, is the course that we must follow it we are to avoid crashing upon these rocks: when man has been taught that no good thing remains in his power, and that he is hedged about on all sides by most miserable necessity, in spite of this he should be instructed to aspire to a good of which he is empty, to a freedom of which he has been deprived.”

Preach man’s utter depravity, and that his will is bound. Preach that he aspire to which he is empty, to a freedom he doesn’t have.

So, YES—preach depravity and duty. Men must be told, you are D.O.A., and they must be told, “Come forth!” and “Get up, the Master is calling for you.”

I crack-up—it’s no dilemma with Calvin. Aspire to a good of which you are empty, O Man. You have nothing, so there and ninner, ninner; come to Christ!

G. Mark Sumpter

Getting the Gospel Right and Then Some

When the Church Goes Her Specious Way

From the late Vaclav Havel (written in 1978): “Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them. As the repository of something suprapersonal and objective, it enables people to deceive their conscience and conceal their true position and their inglorious modus vivendi, both from the world and from themselves. It is a very pragmatic but, at the same time, an apparently dignified way of legitimizing what is above, below, and on either side. It is directed toward people and toward God. It is a veil behind which human beings can hide their own fallen existence, their trivialization, and their adaptation to the status quo. It is an excuse that everyone can use, from the greengrocer, who conceals his fear of losing his job behind an alleged interest in the unification of the workers of the world, to the highest functionary, whose interest in staying in power can be cloaked in phrases about service to the working class. The primary excusatory function of ideology, therefore, is to provide people, both as victims and pillars of the post-totalitarian system, with the illusion that the system is in harmony with the human order and the order of the universe. . . ”

This quote, relayed by OPC Pastor Roger Wagner just after Havel’s recent death, stirs. Below, I do not discount the importance of a Christian’s understanding of Havel’s societal and political assessments—his fine assessments and comments I will add, but I pitch a point or two with respect to ideology as a specious way of relating to the church. The church, too, sports herself all things political. The traditionally reformed, confessional church must be aware of how she can situate herself in the grip of the deception per Havel's commentary.

Let’s do some work.

First, church history shows us that ideology is spelled g-n-o-s-t-i-c-i-s-m.

Grammar in Preaching

Preaching Inquiry

While inside the man cave yesterday with fellow OPC pastor Brian Nicholson, we took to verbal transactions over the use of grammar or terms in preaching.

I was very heavy on the utilitarian and pragmatic. I asked, “I want to be pragmatic...terribly pragmatic...is it permissible to help grow the church—to attract new visitors—by use of biblical and reformed jargon, terms, code-words or grammar paving the way for worship to be visitor-friendly?”

Yes, visitor friendly. Whether non-Christian or professing believer—I am wondering will grammar attract? Does grammar connect?

To illustrate—a Josephine County resident reads the local paper and ponders words like born again, Savior, evangelical, Bible, truth, vows, Adam, Eve, Jesus, church, and the like. My son is a neighborhood paper boy; these words appear fairly frequently in the letters to the editor and maybe in one or two other places. Such words might be considered foreign. But are they altogether foreign? Is there an acquaintance with such grammar of the faith that is sufficient to connect?

Also, as another illustration, other Josephine County residents listen to Renewing Your Mind or hear an mp3 of Phil Ryken, Michael Horton or R.C., Jr. and thinks, “is there a congregation in my area that is a part of the same stream of faith and life—I’ve grown acquainted with this reformed jargon?”

Interestingly, a professing believer, whom I had never met, telephoned the other day, “What does it mean to be reformed?”

If the preacher uses the grammar of the Westminster secondary standards more often, and his congregation increasingly recognizes that grammar, will it pave the way for that same grammar-speak out in everyday discourse of life, and thereby prove to be another way of attracting visitors?

Does Christian terminology—the grammar of the faith—help or hinder preaching? Help or hinder with the goal of reaching out?


—Mark Sumpter

Putting Away Indifference in Preaching

Gladness in preaching

One reason an essential element of love is the enjoyment of our work [in preaching] is that you can't consistently give what you don't have. If you don't give gladness, you don't give the gospel; you give legalism. A pastor who guts out his work in gladless obedience transmits that life to his people and the name of it is hypocrisy and legalistic bondage, not the freedom of those whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.

Another reason is that a pastor who is not manifestly glad in God does not glorify God. He cannot make God look glorious if knowing and serving this God gives no gladness to his soul. A bored and unenthusiastic tour guide in the Alps contradicts and dishonors the majesty of the mountains.

John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching p. 53

G. Mark Sumpter

Preaching within the Glorious Stream of Grace

Situating exposition into God's faithfulness

“Moralism, which merely tells people that what they are doing is wrong and tells them several practical steps to take that will correct that wrong, falls far short of preaching Christ. Preaching isolated biblical texts as examples of how to live without placing each story in the stream that leads to Christ falls short of preaching Christ.”

In the book, Reforming Pastoral Ministry, p. 120 (Editor: John Armstrong, a Crossway Publication, 2001).

Keeping the exposition and application in the stream of grace, keeps the preaching in an historical context. God works through persons and events, thus, we’re brought back to God’s work by His faithfulness, wisdom and power. That’s preaching that centers on Him. The persons and events of the Old and New Testaments feed into the person and events of Jesus Christ—His person and His work. Our union with Christ, by faith in Him, is one with His person of righteousness, of penal substitution and His glorious triumph at His empty tomb. In Christ, we’re given release from slavery to sin, and we’re given incentive and strength to live for God’s glory. Because He lives, we may live too. Lord, help me to preach the person and work of Jesus.

G. Mark Sumpter

Eating the Sermon

Two Years Ago I Was Challenged to Give Up the Manuscript


“There’s no doubt you’ve become much more focused on us as the congregation—the change is super noticeable.” A member at Faith OPC.


“Get rid of your sermon manuscript.” A fellow OPC pastor.

I was challenged to get grounded in the vocabulary and the flow of the English Bible text from which I'm preaching, use the verses as my sermon outline and know the points of explanation and application well—that is, know what I want to say. This pastor friend of mine finished: Your congregation wants to listen to and feed off the sermon, not watch you looking down at your notes.

I have had to work against my fears about this:

1. I am extra nervous on Sundays and I fear that I will forget what I want to say.

2. My notes become a crutch.

3. I am a perfectionist, and therefore, I think using a manuscript will satisfy my hunger, as an obsession, for control and polish. Does someone smell idolatry?

4. I didn’t see this modeled for me growing up through the ranks of younger buckhood to middle ager buckhood. Can I do this? I’ve not seen it done.

5. Is it OK to forget a point, get mixed up a little? My pastor friend said, “You’re the only one who’ll know you forgot something—get over it.”

6. Don’t be afraid to make use of insight and application that the Spirit brings for illumination while in the execution of preaching the text. There have many times where there’s been illumination while reading the passage or preaching the passage, and they are truths or points that I had not seen while preparing it.

This challenge has been good for me. I do want to be prepared. Prayer is huge to be sure. I am learning to preach to God’s people, not be so tied to notes.

Last thing—I do have notes in the pulpit with me. Over time in the pulpit, I’ve gone from 13 pages, down to 10, down to 7 and the past 2 years down to 4 ½-5. I try to take into the pulpit the basic grid and helps that I need.

G. Mark Sumpter

Against Pulpit Boredom

Preacher, read fiction

“Sometimes preachers bore because they don’t understand the nature of Scripture. The Bible, after all, captures not only the intellect, but also the affections, the conscience, the imagination. That’s why the canon includes stories and parables, poetry and proverbs, letters and visions. Dull preaching often translates the imagination-gripping variety of Scripture into the boring tedium of an academic discourse or the boring banality of a ‘how-to’ manual.

So, if you find yourself translating a Psalm into the structure of a Pauline epistle before you preach it, you’re not letting the Scripture do its work in gripping the hearts of your people. And you don’t understand the meaning of the text—a meaning that’s about more than simply collected ideas.

Not even the most straightforward, rigorously doctrinal passages of Scripture are singularly intellectual. The apostles are visual preachers. Paul speaks of gouging out eyes (Gal. 4:15) and of giving his body over to be burned (1 Cor. 13:3), and he compares himself to a nursing mother (1 Thess. 2:7). James writes of a tongue aflame (James 3:6) and of fattened hearts in the day of slaughter (James 5:5).

The biblical revelation is far from boring. It’s the most exciting, engaging story imaginable, which is why it is aped all over the place in epic, drama, poetry, and song.

Preachers who would rage against boredom can start by learning to listen to the literary power of the text. This means, for one thing, learning to form a moral imagination that can be fired up by the Scriptures. For the sake of your congregation, limit your television and stop surfing the internet for hours on end. Read some good fiction and some poetry, and listen to stories being told—and thereby shape an imagination that recognizes literary structure, beauty and coherence.”

From Russell D. Moore’s article: Preaching Like the Devil, Touchstone Magazine, May/June 2010

G. Mark Sumpter

Personal Stories in Preaching

Can stories in the sermon about the pastor’s personal experience be a bad fit?

Notice from acts 17: 22-23, Paul speaks of his walk through the city and what he observed about the Athenians. That’s his sermon starter. Also, in Acts 10, we’re told of Peter’s personal experiences with the Lord—“us who ate and drank with Him…and He commanded us to preach to the people.” In the preaching of John the Baptist, he spoke of his own servanthood: “…but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose…” (Luke 3:16).

True enough—the men of the New Testament weave into their sermons their own life-moments and life-situations, right along with the message of repentance and faith toward Jesus Christ, who was crucified, buried and resurrected.

But it’s good to step back to ask about our use of ourselves in the sermon. Can use of our own life situations for teaching and illustrations get excessive? Are there times when it is like a square peg in a round hole?

1. It is excessive when it is done in every sermon. You don’t see the apostles in Acts weaving personal testimonies or illustrations in every message. It happens; but not in every message—see Acts 2, Peter’s sermon at Pentecost; Paul’s sermon in Acts 13. Preacher, pace yourself, and make sure you monitor your words about self.

2. It is a poor fit when forthright words of hard-to-hear applications are necessary. The apostles, no doubt, were bold and direct. When preachers speak about themselves, they avoid the direct, gripping application starter—“you.” Maybe preachers have lost sight of the plain-spoken, riveting use of words for truthful confrontation. Direct, unqualified words give rise to certain emotions. Sometimes those emotions can be best, most faithfully, reached by being blunt. God stirs. He stirs with no-nonsense confrontation. Have you charged your congregation as a father would charge his children (1 Thess. 2:11)?

3. Story-telling about self can be a thoughtless move away from the story-line and circumstances of the passage. It can be a neglect of helping our people to stand in the shoes of the persons in the biblical text, and those of the first-readers. I grant that it is more natural to remind people of the scene and drama of Joshua at the Jordan or the circumstance of the infirmed man who is helpless at the pool of Bethesda. To be sure, narratives can give word-pictures to use unlike places in the New Testament letters. But ask—how can I seize the circumstances of the events of the passage to drive home the vivid color of the text, leaving myself out of the explanation? Telling the biblical story well or particular parts of it, and telling it to bring people into its drama fosters Bible learning and reflection that promotes the Lord’s work in history.

4. To routinely speak in a way as to make you the memorable point of the sermon, robs our Triune God of His glory and grace. If we hammer away enough and consistently punctuate the message with our histories, mannerisms, gestures, foibles, responses and reflections—humorous or no—people will get that message. We need to be thoughtful about appropriate self-admission and self-reflection. It can come across as gaining favor, and not being faithful. Maybe you’ve read Don Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. At one point, he talks about self-addiction. He writes: I was addicted to myself. All I thought about was myself. The only thing I really cared about was myself. I had very little concept of love, altruism, or sacrifice. I discovered that my mind is like a radio that picks up only one station, the one that plays me: K-DON, all Don, all the time.

I have used my own life many, many times in sermons over the years. It takes discernment about the place and propriety of such things.

G. Mark Sumpter

Clutch Preaching

Application of Texts and Today's Preachers

We might call it clutch preaching. It's when men in the pulpit are driving home textual application to the congregation in today's church and world situations. We're talking about men coming through from the pulpit in the clutch. He's able to deliver today's mail.

From where I stand, such preaching comes up rarely. According to my own background in training and from the days of being under several men in their own pulpit work, it was the exception not the expected.

Here are some examples:

What does the Bible Say about Societal and Social Enemies?

Exploring the Lines of Morality and Practice for the Entertainment World

What's the Fuss Over Phonics and Outcome Based Education?

Tracing Out the Practical Implications of Taxation

Does the Bible Require Christians to Vote?

Marketing Humor and Advertising Hype--What Does the Bible Teach Us?

The Sound Theology and Practice of Martyrdom

Certainly, there can be several other textually-based application areas noted. The chief concern I am pointing out, with an eye on my own pulpit work, is the absence of the breadth of application.

I find myself giving consistent focus to the staple three: health, relationships and finances. I need to realize that even if I am not as well-read in a greater range of topics, I can still explore, when appropriate, the greater range. Yes, I need to be reading more widely; I also need to be anticipating opportunities in texts to explore application points more widely. It doesn't necessarily mean a full sermon on the application subject matter. It does mean being at the ready to make application in areas beyond my staple subjects.

Is breadth for application, diversity of thought and life, on my radar screen when I am preparing the sermon?

G. Mark Sumpter

Sermon Prep 24/7

The preaching mentor and author, Zack Eswine of Covenant Seminary, reminds pastors that everyday life sunrise to sunset, most often thought as the mundane of life, finds plenty of sermon fodder. Of late, my best sermon application points come from a Nazarene pastor friend. It's simple and timely conversation, and I am so grateful for his attentive countenance and perspectives. Recently, he spoke of his own life and the place of faithful leadership among God's people. He was spot on.

Eswine writes: Listening to life and gathering sound bites and snapshots of people and places deepens our wisdom. This is our calling. Biblical preaching makes a missional turn when preachers see nothing as more essential than their personal walk with God and see all of life as their sermon preparation.

I've mentioned to several that my work at the hospital slows me down. Quite literally, you walk slower around the halls, and into the rooms; and the conversation goes to a creep-crawl. The patients on whom I call are God's agents of change for my life. I turn my ears on. They preach texts and application at me every time.

Sermons Via Surgery. Hip and Thigh Hope. The Body Chemistry of Faith. Patients in the Pulpit.

Preparing for sermons happens all the time.

G. Mark Sumpter

Preaching Application

This quote and the next remind the preacher to be working at application in the sermon in ways that bear on the specific concerns and opportunities of the very day and generation of his very parishioners:

Martin Luther, the German Reformer, 1483-1546:

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefields besides, is more flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

G. Mark Sumpter

Preaching Application

A Second Quote...

Westminster's February 1645, Directory for the Public Worship of God:

“(The minister) is not to rest in general doctrine, although never so much cleared and confirmed, but to bring it home to special use, by application to his hearers: which albeit it prove a work of great difficulty to himself, requiring much prudence, zeal, and meditation, and to the natural and corrupt man will be very unpleasant; yet he is to endeavor to perform it in such a manner that his auditors may feel the word of God to be quick and powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts of the heart; and that if any unbeliever or ignorant person be present, he may have the secrets of his heart made manifest, and give glory to God.”

He Wounded His Heart At Buried Knee

“Earnestness may be sincere, serious, ardent, and persevering. It goes at a thing with good will, pursues it with perseverance, and urges it with ardor; puts force in it. But all these forces do not rise higher than the mere human. The man is in it -- the whole man, with all that he has of will and heart, of brain and genius, of planning and working and talking. He has set himself to some purpose which has mastered him, and he pursues to master it. There may be none of God in it. There may be little of God in it, because there is so much of the man in it. He may present pleas in advocacy of his earnest purpose which please or touch and move or overwhelm with conviction of their importance; and in all this earnestness may move along earthly ways, being propelled by human forces only, its altar made by earthly hands and its fire kindled by earthly flames.

It is said of a rather famous preacher of gifts, whose construction of Scripture was to his fancy or purpose, that he “grew very eloquent over his own exegesis.” So men grow exceeding earnest over their own plans or movements. Earnestness may be selfishness simulated.

What of unction? It is the indefinable in preaching which makes it preaching. It is that which distinguishes and separates preaching from all mere human addresses. It is the divine in preaching. It makes the preaching sharp to those who need sharpness. It distills as the dew to those who need to he refreshed. It is well described as:

A two-edged sword
Of heavenly temper keen,
And double were the wounds it made
Wherever it glanced between.
'Twas death to silt; 'twas life
To all who mourned for sin.
It kindled and it silenced strife,
Made war and peace within.

This unction comes to the preacher not in the study but in the closet. It is heaven's distillation in answer to prayer. It is the sweetest exhalation of the Holy Spirit. It impregnates, suffuses, softens, percolates, cuts, and soothes. It carries the Word like dynamite, like salt, like sugar; makes the Word a soother, an arranger, a revealer, a searcher; makes the hearer a culprit or a saint, makes him weep like a child and live like a giant; opens his heart and his purse as gently, yet as strongly as the spring opens the leaves. This unction is not the gift of genius. It is not found in the halls of learning. No eloquence can woo it. No industry can win it. No prelatical hands can confer it. It is the gift of God -- the signet set to his own messengers. It is heaven's knighthood given to the chosen true and brave ones who have sought this anointed honor through many an hour of tearful, wrestling prayer.

Earnestness is good and impressive: genius is gifted and great. Thought kindles and inspires, but it takes a diviner endowment, a more powerful energy than earnestness or genius or thought to break the chains of sin, to win estranged and depraved hearts to God, to repair the breaches and restore the Church to her old ways of purity and power. Nothing but this holy unction can do this. ”

From The Power of Prayer by EM Bounds, a chaplain in the War Between the States

G. Mark Sumpter

Spring Training

The Simeon Trust helps men with their preaching. An 8th Workshop on biblical exposition will be hosted at Christ The Redeemer Church in Spokane, WA, March 17-19, 2009. I think also there will be some training offered in McMinnville, OR!!




Kent Hughes of Wheaton, Ill will be on hand. OPC Pastor Larry Wilson has raved about the teaching and training offered through College Church, where Hughes is the preaching pastor.

To check out the brochure and see the application for the 2009 Spokane workshop go here: www.simeonworkshops.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=114

G. Mark Sumpter