Faith and Knowledge
A Sermon on Ephesians 4:13
Originally preached Nov. 17, 1957
Scripture
13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Sermon Description
What is the end goal of the church? How are believers and members of this church supposed to reach this goal? In this sermon on Ephesians 4:13 titled “Faith and Knowledge,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones provides helpful commentary. The overall plan is that the church becomes perfect as this is the final state of the church. The church, Dr. Lloyd-Jones says, will only reach this point after each individual member has reached the potential of spiritual growth that God has mapped out for them. Yet, he also teaches that there will be inequalities in this individual growth: “There is not the same amount in each, but each is full.” Dr. Lloyd-Jones helps understand that it is like completely filling two water bottles of different sizes— though they differ in the quantity of water that is held in them, they are both full. This, he says, is the end goal— but how is the church supposed to get there? First, it must achieve unity of faith through building up the body of Christ, the work of the ministry, and by growing in Christlikeness through sanctification. Second, it must attain the knowledge of God. This knowledge, explains Paul, goes far beyond mere intellectual assent of biblical doctrine because it involves really knowing God. When coupled together in a believer’s life, these two pathways serve to greatly grow believers in their relationships with the Lord.
Sermon Breakdown
- The apostle Paul is dealing with the question of unity in the church.
- He has given the Ephesians doctrine in the first 3 chapters and now tells them to put it into practice.
- The first thing is to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
- Paul gives reasons why unity is essential - the nature of the church, its organization, the gifts Christ has given.
- The ultimate objective is that we become a perfect man, attaining the fullness of Christ.
- The perfect man is Christ as the head and the church as the body.
- The body will be perfect when every part is perfect, though parts differ in size and function.
- The church is not meant to produce sameness but unity in diversity.
- The perfect man has not arrived until every saint is safely in and full of grace.
- Christ's fullness is in us and we make up His fullness.
- We must think more of the perfect man coming and attaining Christ's fullness.
- The ministry aims to build up the body to this end.
- We must attain unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God.
- Unity of faith means agreeing on Christ's person, work, teaching - who He is and what He did.
- While there is one faith in justification by faith alone, our faith is not yet perfect.
- Knowledge of the Son of God is personal, experimental, receiving His life and fullness.
- We must know Him, not just know about Him, living by Him and on Him.
- Faith alone may puff up but knowledge of Christ builds up.
- We go on attaining unity of faith and knowledge of Christ until we reach the perfect man in Him.
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.