All the Fullness of God
A Sermon on the Fullness of God from Ephesians 3:19
Originally preached March 31, 1957
Scripture
19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Sermon Description
Every day the Christian needs spiritual strength to resist temptation and persevere in righteousness. Every day they need the power of God working in their life. In this sermon on the fullness of God from Ephesians 3:19, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones helps the listener understand this great need from Paul’s words. Dr. Lloyd-Jones focuses on verse 19 and shows what it means to be filled with all the fullness of God. Dr. Lloyd-Jones helps listeners understand the difference between incommunicable and communicable, giving several examples. God’s incommunicable attributes include His eternity, immutability, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, and more. His communicable attributes are His holiness, righteousness, goodness, love, mercy, compassion, and more. Paul is expressing that God’s people are to chase after God’s communicable attributes and strive to exemplify them in their lives. The incommunicable attributes, though inexplicable, allow the Christian to bask in the glory of God’s majesty and incomprehensibility. If one pursues these communicable attributes, they are putting on the new self and chasing after the fruit of the Spirit. Pursuit of these qualities is proof of a regenerate heart and the presence of Christ in their life. In literal terms, being filled with the fullness of God means unity with Christ. The believer is in Christ, and Christ is in the believer. Listen as Dr. Lloyd-Jones encourages the listener with the word of God.
Sermon Breakdown
- The apostle Paul prays for the Ephesians to be filled with all the fullness of God.
- This is the climax of Paul's prayer and the highest experience conceivable.
- This does not mean a false mysticism where we are dissolved in God or God is dissolved in us. God and man remain distinct.
- This is not hyperbole or Paul being carried away by rhetoric. Paul builds up to this logically and it is the conclusion of his argument.
- This does not just mean receiving blessings from God. It means being filled with the communicable attributes of God's nature.
- We cannot contain all of God's incommunicable attributes like omnipresence, omniscience, immutability, and eternity. But we can share in God's communicable attributes like love, goodness, holiness, and righteousness.
- This fullness becomes ours through Christ indwelling our hearts by faith and our knowledge of His love.
- What is true of Christ, who contains the fullness of the Godhead, becomes true of us through our union with Him.
- We must think of this fullness in terms of quality, not quantity. The fullness may vary in degree but the essential nature remains.
- This does not mean we all receive the same gifts or become the same. Our gifts and personalities remain, but we share the same Christ-like nature.
- This is a call to perfection in love, becoming like our heavenly Father.
The Book of Ephesians
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.