Sermon NotesMason Depew
Our pastoral assistant, Mason Depew, holds a B.A. from Arizona State University and an M.Div from Westminster Seminary California. He completed several internships at churches in multiple states. Mason and his wife Hannah were recently overjoyed to have their firstborn son, Theodore, in April 2022. Mason’s favorite quote from Theodore Beza, after whom the Depews’ son is named, is this: “We divide this Word into two principal parts or kinds: the one is called the ‘Law’, the other the ‘Gospel’. For all the rest can be gathered under the one or other of these two headings…Ignorance of this distinction between Law and Gospel is one of the principal sources of the abuses which corrupted and still corrupt Christianity.” Mason hopes to maintain this distinction and expound the Law and Gospel of God in as much of their fullness as the Spirit makes him able to do. He currently preaches about once a month, teaches Sunday School, leads the prayer meeting, and helps lead Sunday morning worship at Church of the Redeemer.
Gary L.W. Johnson
Our Senior Pastor, Gary L. W. Johnson, holds a B.A. from Edison State College; M.A. from Faith Theological Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; Th.M. and PhD. Studies from Westminster Theological Seminary; D. Theol. (cand.) from University of South Africa. He has held several pastorates, and has taught at several colleges. He has written for Table Talk, The Reformation and Revival Journal, Modern Reformation, and The Westminster Theological Journal. He was a contributor to The Coming Evangelical Crisis (Moody Press, 1996), co-editor with Fowler White of Whatever Happened to the Reformation? (P&R, 2001), co-editor with G. P. Waters of By Faith Alone: Answering the Challenges to the Doctrine of Justification (Crossway, 2007), editor of B. B. Warfield: Essays on His Life and Thought (P&R, 2007), and co-editor with Ron Gleason, Reforming or Conforming? A Critique of Post-Evangelicalism (Crossway, 2008).
Hal Thompson – Chairman
Hal was born and raised in Amarillo, TX where in his youth he pursued a life of sin and dissolution. In his college years God granted him repentance. The mid 70’s was an amazing and confusing time for a young Christian with no real grounding as the Charismatic Movement was in full swing and The Late Great Planet Earth was jumping off the shelves. But another movement was also underway to counter the false doctrines with the great biblical doctrines such as justification by faith. The great Calvinist professor S. Lewis Johnson was at Dallas Seminary in those days, and by God’s grace and kind providence Hal soon fell in with students of his. The world of Warfield, Charles Hodge, and Calvin was opened up, and Hal began to see more and more the love of God and the marvels of the work of Christ. Hal was blessed to study Greek and Hebrew at Believers’ Chapel in Dallas and has continued to study and teach the Scriptures. Hal has been at Church of the Redeemer since moving to Phoenix in 1993 with his wife and three children.