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Clip: Theology Is Crucial for Every Church and Believer — Ephesians 1:13–14

Jim Butler · 2022-04-24 · Ephesians 1:13–14 · 1,576 words · 10 min

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Summary

Expository

A thorough knowledge of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the irreducible foundation that differentiates, encourages, and equips the church for faithful living and evangelism.

Theology proper — the knowledge of who God is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is not an academic luxury but the essential foundation of Christian life, worship, and witness. This sermon clip from an exposition of Ephesians 1:3–14 argues that the church's tendency to rush past doxological passages to practical ethics has left believers spiritually thin, prone to a mercenary relationship with God rather than one grounded in the infinite riches of his grace. The preacher calls the congregation to disciplined study of the Trinity, warning that without it believers become vulnerable to ancient heresies and lose the impetus to proclaim Christ to a lost world.

Key quotes

It is just and legitimate and necessary for those conquered by sovereign grace to want to understand their God, to want to know about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
We can never exhaust it. We can never out-sin God's grace. I'm not suggesting we try, but we cannot. It's according to the riches of His grace.
Brethren, it is a duty, and you better start to study the Trinity. You better have clear understanding. In this internet age, there is no shortage of heresy.

Applications

  1. Commit to the disciplined study of who God is — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — as the first priority of your Christian life, not merely as an academic exercise but as a duty and a delight.
  2. Do not approach God on a mercenary footing, anxiously asking whether you have sinned your way out of his favour; rest instead in the infinite riches of his grace revealed in Christ.
  3. Take passages like Ephesians 1:3–14 seriously rather than bypassing them for practical ethics; let doxology shape your understanding of how to live.
  4. Guard yourself against Trinitarian heresy — Arianism, Sabellianism, and their modern revivals — by building a clear and confessional understanding of the triune God.
  5. Let your knowledge of the glory of Christ become the impetus to proclaim the gospel to sinners, trusting that the God who saves the worst of sinners magnifies his own grace in doing so.

Questions this sermon answers

Why is studying theology important for ordinary Christians?

The speaker argues that knowledge of God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is what fundamentally distinguishes Christians from unbelievers, provides daily encouragement and strength, and guards against heresy; it is not optional but a Christian duty.

Can a Christian sin too much to remain in God's grace?

The speaker insists that because God's grace is infinite — rooted in the infinite perfections of God himself — believers can never exhaust or out-sin it; the forgiveness of sins is 'according to the riches of his grace.'

Why does the church neglect passages like Ephesians 1?

The speaker observes that the church tends to rush to practical-ethical passages such as Ephesians 5–6 while bypassing the doxological foundation of Ephesians 1:3–14, leaving believers without the theological grounding that gives those ethics their meaning.

What is the connection between knowing God and evangelism?

The speaker contends that a rich understanding of the glory of Christ and the power of redemption is the very impetus that drives believers to proclaim the gospel; shallow theology produces reluctant evangelists.

How should believers respond to heresy about the Trinity?

The speaker calls the congregation to disciplined, clear study of the Trinity, warning that ancient heresies such as Arianism and Sabellianism are being revived in the internet age and that only a well-grounded theology proper can protect the church.

some searching. So for right now,

The Necessity of Theology Proper

I just want to close with an emphasis first on the necessity of theology proper. In other words, brethren, that is our bread and butter. That's what differentiates us from the non-Christians. It's not about our performance.

It's not about our conduct, it's not about our virtue, it's about our God. It's about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's what distinguishes us. Now certainly we should have conduct consistent with that true and living God, and especially the redemptive work of His Son that has brought us forgiveness, that has brought us salvation.

We should live in light of that and live in a particular manner. But brethren, the knowledge of God is absolutely crucial. Who is this God? That ought to be what we are longing to understand.

Certainly the Bible is filled with all kinds of good lessons and all kinds of good helps for life in this present world. In fact, in Ephesians, when we get later on, In Ephesians 5 and 6, for instance, there's a great emphasis on ethics within the Christian life as individuals, as families, as employers, as employees. Brethren, I am not suggesting we shouldn't study those passages, but it seems to me that the church has hastened to study those passages and bypass the glory of Ephesians 1, 3 to 14. Paul the Apostle starts not with husbands love your wives, but he starts with blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

He starts with God, he ends with God, he discusses God within. Why? because it is the knowledge of God Most High that not only differentiates us as His people, but it gives us encouragement, it gives us strength, it gives us the wherewithal to get out of bed each and every day and to persevere unto that heavenly kingdom. Because of who God is, it enables the people of God to continue to faithfully go forward. If we don't know this God, if we don't understand the system of grace, if we don't understand the benevolence of God, we'll always be on this sort of mercenary footing.

Am I okay with you today, Father? One of my grandsons asks his father, are you happy, daddy? I'm happy. He likes to test the waters.

Everybody happy here? People pleaser, right? That's indicative of this little fellow. He wants everybody around him to be happy.

Sometimes I think we treat God that way. Are you okay with me, God? Have I sinned my way out of your covenant and kingdom? Have I broken that covenant in such a way that I've got to sort of carry my favor back with you?

That's not the God of Holy Writ. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. According to what? The riches of His grace.

See, brethren, this isn't just some sort of a sideline note. When we get that concept that all that is in God is God, that God is His perfections, that means love is infinite. That means grace is infinite. That means mercy is infinite.

There is no utilization of all the resources that are in our God. We can never exhaust it. We can never out-sin God's grace. I'm not suggesting we try, but we cannot.

It's according to the riches of His grace. So understanding God differentiates us from the pagans. It differentiates us from all the false sort of religions out there. But it encourages us, it comforts us, it strengthens us.

Where does the psalmist go when he's musing on the chaos that oftentimes obtains in the world around us? He goes to God. Psalm 4610, be still and what? Know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The comfort for the believer is not in, I hope the circumstances work themselves out. I hope the chaos is overcome by the new political leader.

The comfort for God's people is the God of the people. The comfort for God's people is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each of whom we have communion with, yet not three gods, one God, most glorious, most wondrous, most loving. Those are things predicated of this God because this is what the Bible teaches. So the doctrine of theology proper, that means the study of who God is, is necessary to differentiate us, it is necessary to encourage us, and it is necessary, brethren, because it's what we should want to do.

It is what we should want to do.

Studying the Works of God

Turn to Psalm 111. Psalm 111. The psalmist sets forth a pattern here that we should employ in this context of theology proper. Psalm 111 at verse 2, the works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.

There are people that spend time studying the creation. There are people that spend time in botany and zoology and biology and all manner of understanding the created world around them. This has its tap roots in history and in scripture. Solomon was a natural scientist.

Solomon was a philosopher. Solomon composed several proverbs, not just what we have in there, but he has this approach to wisdom. He looks at God's world and he thinks through it. He looks at the two books, God's revelation and general revelation, and God's revelation and special revelation.

And it leads him to ponder, it leads him to muse, it leads him to contemplate. So we study God's works, creation. It's a good thing to study. Providence, we ought to study that and be aware of that because in the midst of the chaos, God is over all.

It is His chaos. It is for His purposes. It is ultimately for His glory, and understanding providence, I hope, would put us in a proper place in terms of our humility before God. But redemption, great are the works of the Lord, or the works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.

It is just and legitimate and necessary for those conquered by sovereign grace to want to understand their God, to want to know about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, to take passages like Ephesians 1, 3 to 14 seriously, and to bless God for who He is, to bless God for what He does, to bless God for His triunity and the wisdom that is displayed in the salvation of His people. He chose us before the foundation of the world. In the fullness of the time, He sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. And then He sends the Spirit to those conquered by the grace of that Savior, so that they can cry, Abba, Father, so that they receive that Spirit of adoption.

I mean, brethren, you're saved. Isn't that the best thing you've ever heard? That's the most glorious and wondrous thing. We were dead in our trespasses and sins.

We were justly liable to God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come. Our dessert is hell. Our dessert is separation from God. Our dessert is the outer darkness wherein there is weeping and wailing, gnashing of teeth.

But lo and behold, God saved us. Is it a stretch, then, to think that Peter's kind of losing his mind in 2 Peter 3, 18, but grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? I don't want to say, brethren, this is a duty, and you better start to study the Trinity. But brethren, it is a duty, and you better start to study the Trinity.

You better have clear understanding. In this internet age, there is no shortage of heresy. There is no shortage of Arianism. There is no shortage of Sabellianism.

There is no shortage of ways that people, the professing people of God, can go astray with old ancient heresies that have been brought back anew, baptized afresh, and employed against the living and true God. And then finally,

Theology as Impetus for Evangelism

without this knowledge, without this understanding of who God is, without a recognition of the riches of His grace, we won't be evangelists. We won't proclaim the glory of Christ to a lost and dying world. But when we understand that glory of Christ, when we understand the blessed power of redemption, It's an impetus to us to go and tell sinners about Christ. Come to Him.

Yeah, but I'm a sinful man. Yeah, that's who He came to save. It magnifies the glory of God in the salvation of sinners and provides the impetus for the people of God to go, therefore, and to make disciples of all the nations. Perhaps we're not better at making disciples because we're not as fully committed to the God that we're proclaiming.

But when we understand this God, when we grow to see how the scripture refers to this God, it melts the heart, it wins the soul, it causes conquest and it makes us want to serve Him and to glorify Him and to understand that this is the most blessed provision that has ever been given in the history of mankind. And we will bid, by grace, sinners to come to

Scripture References

Study notes

Theological terms

  • Adoption
  • Arianism
  • Covenant of Grace
  • Divine Simplicity
  • General Revelation
  • Particular Redemption
  • Providence×2
  • Sabellianism
  • Special Revelation
  • Theology Proper×4
  • Trinity×4
  • Unconditional Election

People cited

  • Solomon×2