Happy Sabbath

The Steady Diet of the Sabbath

“God’s intention was to bless his people through the constant and conscientious observation of the day, week after week and year after year. Believers are sanctified through a lifetime of Sabbath observance. In other words, the Sabbath is designed to work slowly, quietly, seemingly imperceptively in reorienting believers’ appetites heavenward. It is not a quick fix, nor is it necessarily a spiritual high. It is an “outward and ordinary” ordinance (WSC 88), part of the steady and healthy diet of the means of grace. North American Protestants, we have noted, are generally not in sync with this rhythm. Attracted to the inward and extraordinary, they commonly suffer from spiritual bulimia, binging at big events, then purging, by absenting themselves from God’s prescribed diet. The problem with the spirituality of mountaintop experiences is that no one can live on the mountain. We all have to return to our day jobs. When people leave the retreat or Bible camp, or even the midweek small group, they discover their life is still the same: jobs are unpleasant, marriages are shaky, sickness and disease afflict. In contrast, the Sabbath is supposed to be a discipline that provides an oasis in the desert for pilgrims, whose life is marked by suffering. Unlike the church activities that clutter the rest of the week, the Sabbath is when believers spiritually assemble on Mount Zion to meet with their God, to hear him speak, and to partake spiritually of their Savior’s body and blood.”


With Reverence and Awe by Darryl Hart and John Muether, pp. 65-66.


HT: In Light of the Gospel

G. Mark Sumpter

What is Theology?

John Frame envelops theology with persons who use the Scriptures

“THEOLOGY is the application of the Word of God by persons to all areas of life… TEACHING is the use of God’s revelation to meet the spiritual needs of people…. By defining theology as application, I am not seeking to disparage the theoretical work of theologians. Theory is one kind of application. It answers certain kinds of questions and meets certain kinds of human needs…I am, however, seeking to discourage the notion that theology is ‘properly’ something theoretical, something academic, as opposed to the practical teaching that goes on in preaching, counseling, and Christian friendship.” John Frame in his, DOCTRINE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD—pp. 81, 84.

Frame’s definition of theology throws the mandate and task of the church of knowing, loving and serving our great God into Trinitarian faith and life. In order to show forth our image after God’s likeness, we are persons bound in relationship to one another—the church, who study, learn and mutually nurture in such a way as to show submission to the Bible’s promises and commands aiming for life-application in the nitty-gritty of every area of thinking and living.

G. Mark Sumpter

Teachers, Not Missional Pace-Setters

Biblical Authority, Strong Conviction for Repentance and Revival

“If there is going to be a renaissance of religion, its bearers will not be people who have been falling all over each other to be ‘relevant to modern man’…Strong eruptions of religious faith have always been marked by the appearance of people with firm, unapologetic, often uncompromising convictions—that is, by types that are the very opposite from those presently engaged in the various ‘relevance’ operations. Put simply: Ages of faith are not marked by ‘dialogue’ but by proclamation…I would affirm that the concern for the institutional structures of the Church will be vain unless there is also a new conviction and a new authority in the Christian community.”

From Peter L. Berger. Quoted in The Presbyterian Journal, 1971—as cited in J.M. Boice’s systematic theology called, Foundations of the Christian Faith IVP, p. 673.

The crowds were astonished with Jesus because He taught with authority. That reference to His authority meant, no doubt, the method of teaching without having to quote the accepted rabbinic traditions of His time. So true.

But I wonder about something more. Wasn’t there a manifestation of His authority seen in additional attention-getting, pressing and forceful ways?

His loyalty to be the learner of God—His sinless life matched His words. Holiness.

He quoted and exposited the Old Testament. He rooted His claims about His own person and work fulfilling God's promises in the provision of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. Using the Scriptures.

He cried out at times in a loud voice to teach, to proclaim; and at times, He refused to answer a question. Conviction.

He taught in informal occasions—on mountainsides, at the waterfront, privately, at night, while walking, with crowds about their hubbub. In routines, known as Teacher.

He harnessed a range of methods—parables, illustrations, a refusal to answer questions, metaphor, lecture, handling objects, discussion, reviewing a lesson, preaching, scratching in the dirt, reading, citing quotes, referring to songs, comparisons, spoken and direct confrontation. Brought the truth in relationship to others and their capacities.

He was known as Teacher. 45 times, at least, He was addressed with that title.

Our times are ones where we note quality leadership and authority stem from plans, goal-setting and contagious-infectious modeling. We’re told about influential, missional pace-setting pastors. These same folk tell us of the importance to rally around the man, or more, to rally around the vision of the man.

Also, what compounds the short-change of the practice of faithful authority in the local church springs from the ready acknowledgment that the REAL teaching gifts and their application reside in the seminary or Bible college. The academy gets the first-priority nod about authority.  

So how can we get started on Berger's renewal?

Without teaching a people perish, we’re told in Proverbs (Proverbs 29:18). It has to be exposition of the Bible where the Scriptures are providing both the diagnosis of circumstances and people, and then as well, giving that same kind of attention to Jesus Christ, His glory, and our union in Him—His life, death, resurrection and ascension. Biblical exposition must be working at such authority that provides for sound church health and growth.

Pastors must hunger for correction and improvement about their teaching. Ruling elders should have an open door to the pastor for his needful, fruitful correction.

Where can we go to access helpful resources that aim at improving the teaching gifts of our men?

Should pastors try to be more collegial in some of their endeavors in the practice of teaching? There should be times of pastor to pastor modeling and evaluation.

When pastors write, they get the chance to work at clarity, expression and fluidity. Giving pastoral interns writing assignments might be a start.

Teaching in large groups and in small groups, with the ebb and flow of diverse settings, can help with adjustments and improvements.

The growing churches—Berger’s renaissance churches—are well-grounded with Biblically expositional feeding and care for God’s flock; such an endeavor speaks of faithful, penetrating Biblical authority.

Unapologetic, convicting teachers of the Word, not missional pace-setters are what we’re talking about.

G. Mark Sumpter

Bulimia Matters.22

C.H. Spurgeon on discouragement

“O brethren, be great believers. Little faith will bring your souls to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your souls.”

Cited in Dallimore’s book, SPURGEON, p. 187.

What is great faith? It's living in and through Christ---putting into practice God's gracious and glorious promises, acting on His commands, heeding His warnings, anticipating His presence.

G. Mark Sumpter

Leon Morris—a Note on John 10 and Shepherding

A Shepherd’s Care for the Sheep

“It is plain enough that dangers could arise for the shepherd at any time. But the Palestinian shepherd did not reckon on dying; he thought he would survive. The job has its dangers, certainly. But men have never been deterred from jobs simply because there are dangers (as we can see from modern life as well as any other). Men always think that there are ways of dealing with the danger and never expect the dire results to follow for them---it is always other people who get caught! So with the shepherd in antiquity. Allowing for the fact that there would be problems as he looked after the sheep, he though he could cope; otherwise he would not be a shepherd. He knew that there was the possibility that he would be wounded or even die, but he knew the resources he had and was optimistic. No man willingly dies for animals like sheep.

But the one thing Jesus says he will do for people in his capacity as Shepherd is die for them. That for him was the central thing. He had come to bring salvation, and that meant death on behalf of his sheep.

A Palestinian shepherd might sometimes die in the exercise of his duty as a shepherd, but that was always a mishap, something that occurred as a result of some miscalculation. If he was thinking of the welfare of his sheep, the shepherd thought of what he could do by his life, not of what he could by his death. Jesus’ attitude was quite different. He put his death in the forefront. That is what the Good Shepherd would do.”

G. Mark Sumpter

To God Be the Glory

Encore!

Why are we biblical Christians? Yes, we use the Bible. But why? Because it is the book that God has given. And why is that important? It is to the Bible we go, where we learn about God. And why be concerned about God? Because God is at the center of all that God is about. And to see God at the center, God for His own glory…God for His own honor…God for His own name… God for His own purposes… God asking the questions, God answering the questions… God in the midst… not to the side… God in fore-thought, not an after-thought… this is to confess what the God of the Bible confesses: for Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever and Ever and Ever………. And we can yet ask again, why be God-centered about God? Because God is centered on God.

It is like a symphony hall…. The Father is the conductor…. The entire orchestra is the Son of God; and the audience who bears witness is the Holy Spirit. He, our God, enjoys the hall… for it’s His hall… it’s His score of the music, His conducting of the score, His playing of every note—each section perfect in pitch, time, with skill and peformance; He is the display, the witness, the response, the eyes that are fixed in wonderment and awe, the One who moves to the edge of the seat to turn His ear to melodic and pastoral textures, and then stands to cheer, “bravo, bravo!” This is the symphony hall called Trinity Hall… the marquee board reads, “For from Him and to Him and through Him are all things. To Him be the glory for ever and ever.”

G.Mark Sumpter

After the Lord’s Supper

The part about “to...fulfill their vows…”

Question 175 from the Westminster Larger Catechism


Q. 175. What is the duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's supper?


A. The duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's supper, is seriously to consider how they have behaved themselves therein, and with what success; if they find quickening and comfort, to bless God for it, beg the continuance of it, watch against relapses, fulfill their vows, and encourage themselves to a frequent attendance on that ordinance: but if they find no present benefit, more exactly to review their preparation to, and carriage at, the sacrament; in both which, if they can approve themselves to God and their own consciences, they are to wait for the fruit of it in due time: but, if they see they have failed in either, they are to be humbled, and to attend upon it afterwards with more care and diligence.


At Faith Presbyterian, we left worship renewed in the covenant mercies and covenant marching orders of the Lord last week, and there was the stress of fulfilling our vows to one another; after all, we had just heard from the Lord of His renewal with us, now it was time in our own renewal to walk in the vows. So, there was the exhortation: “we’ve just sat at the Table together; we say we enjoy the Table Fellowship, let us go forward and be the family we are in Christ Jesus.”


I like this question: What is the duty of Christians, after they have received the sacrament of the Lord's supper?


G. Mark Sumpter

Presbytery—the Work of the Church, moving “Like a Mighty Glacier!”

Jack Phelps, thanks for the pix!

Last week, the Presbytery of Anselm of the CREC met in the Matanuska Valley, Alaska. What a shot—huh? In high school and then later in ministry years up there, we used to climb around on this giant—as do so many Alaskans. Pastor Jack Phelps serves Covenant Bible of the CREC in the Great Land.

This is the Matanuska Glacier; her sprawl is able to be seen at about mile 90, 95 or so on the Glenn Highway.

G. Mark Sumpter

The Doctrine of Adoption, II

God's filial love--the apex of grace

“Adoption, as the term clearly implies, is an act of transfer from an alien family into the family of God himself. This is surely the apex of grace and privilege. We would not dare to conceive of such grace far less claim it apart from God’s own revelation and assurance. It staggers imagination because of its amazing condescension and love. The Spirit alone could be the seal of it in our hearts. ‘Eye hath not seen, no ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God’ (1 Cor. 2:9, 10). It is only as there is the conjunction of the witness of revelation and the inward witness of the Spirit in our hearts that we are able to scale this pinnacle of faith and say with the filial confidence and love, Abba Father.” John Murray, p. 134 in his Redemption Accomplished and Applied.

Murray elsewhere says that adoption reigns as the chief fruit of Christ’s redemptive work for His children; here he calls it the apex of grace. I've been accustomed to think of justification as the apex of grace.

The Spirit works with the Word to confirm, to seal the eternal inheritance; but more, the Spirit enables us to grasp the promises and reality regarding God's good pleasure and delight in us and for us.

The Word convinces, and the Spirit convinces. A double testimony to the truth.

G. Mark Sumpter

O Lord, I Repent From Wanting to Get People Saved

Ken Myers writing about C.S. Lewis on method of presenting Christ

“Lewis’s imaginative skills were thus focused less on the mere credibility or plausibility of belief (which are the concerns of most apologists) and more on the ramifications of belief: If the gospel is true, here is how the world would look. Even ‘belief’ had a more comprehensive scope in his thinking than most apologists recognize. The gospel wasn’t just a message about getting saved; it was a message of salvation in the context of a bigger story about the meaning of everything. It presupposed a cosmology and a rich anthropology. As in the Creed, Lewis’s defense of the faith began with a tacit but rich affirmation of the Maker of heaven and earth, who made all things in a particular way, the shape of which his creatures would do well to honor.” Ken Myers in the recent Touchstone Magazine, “Contours of Culture,” Sept/Oct 2010.

Lord, help me show people just how great You are; what Your world is like and what it will be like more and more since Jesus is subduing more and more for His own name, and Dear Father, You show them life in the Big Picture of things—for the glory of Jesus’ Lordship. Amen.

G. Mark Sumpter

Gather the People

In prayer

Joel 2:16 “Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and nursing babes…”

There’ll be corporate prayer—summoned by the elders of Faith Church on October 24, 10:00 AM, and we’ll be praying for the church in the Northwest and around the USA for faithfulness and truth in the family, church and state.

G. Mark Sumpter

Other Prayers

A Lutheran Prayer Book, 1960

O GOD, who givest daily bread without prayer, even to all the wicked, we pray thee that thou wouldst give us to acknowledge these thy benefits; and enable us to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. Amen.

O MERCIFUL, PATIENT FATHER, who dost protect and preserve us, guide us by thy grace and banish the blindness of the world and our minds, that we may apply ourselves wholly to the keeping of thy commandments, and do our work without care, like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, because thou hast promised to care for us and bade us cast all our cares on thee, who livest and reignest for ever. Amen.

THE LORD preserve us from all evil. The Lord preserve our souls. The Lord preserve our going out and our coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. Amen.

G. Mark Sumpter