Hearing and Learning Christ
A Sermon on Ephesians 4:20-21
Originally preached March 16, 1958
Scripture
20But ye have not so learned Christ; 21If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Sermon Description
Those who try to separate the call of the gospel from the call to be holy make a great error. In this sermon on Ephesians 4:20–21 titled “Hearing and Learning Christ,” Dr Lloyd-Jones argues that the Bible presents the life of faith as a pursuit of holiness and righteousness that comes out of the new person through the Holy Spirit. Christians ought not separate belief in the gospel from living out the call of God in their lives to be imitators of Christ and to obey all that He commands. Preachers who misunderstand the connection between holiness and belief in the gospel often confuse listeners that they seek to evangelize by presenting the Christian life as compartmentalized. However, as Dr. Lloyd-Jones points out, even the pursuit of holiness in the life of the Christian is ultimately a result of what God has done in and through His Son Jesus Christ. Christians can easily fall into legalism when they disconnect the sovereign act of salvation from everyday Christian life. Christians must avoid dualisms knowing that Christ made them a new people by His death and resurrection. Therefore they respond in love and obedience, not as a way to gain favor with God, but because Christ has already done so for them.
Sermon Breakdown
- The apostle Paul is addressing Christians in Ephesus who were once pagans. He wants them to understand that they cannot continue living as pagans now that they have learned Christ.
- Christianity is not just an emotional experience. It involves learning and understanding. The Ephesians have learned Christ through hearing and being taught the truth about him.
- The Ephesians cannot continue living as pagans because everything about Christ leads to holiness. There cannot be a division between believing in Christ and living a holy life.
- The truth in Jesus is the truth about God, Jesus, and the gospel. It reveals God as the holy Father, Jesus as the holy Son, and the gospel as leading to holiness.
- Hearing Christ means understanding and believing the message about him, not just listening to it. It means the message has gripped you and become the most important thing.
- Being taught in Christ means you are united to him and are learning from the inside, not as an outsider. The teaching imparts life, not just knowledge.
- To hear Christ and be taught in him means understanding that God sent Jesus to live, die, and rise again to deliver us from sin and make us holy. We are now part of Christ and destined for heaven.
- If you have truly learned Christ in this way, you cannot continue living as a pagan. Everything about him makes that impossible.
Sermon Q&A
Questions and Answers from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Sermon on Ephesians 4:20-21
What does "learning Christ" truly mean according to Lloyd-Jones?
According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, learning Christ means far more than just an emotional experience or intellectual knowledge. He explains that "Christianity is not just a vague emotional experience" but requires true understanding of Christ that leads inevitably to holiness. Learning Christ means knowing the truth that is in Jesus, which automatically leads to a transformed life separated from sin. It includes knowing the historical person of Jesus, accepting the exclusive truth about Him, and allowing this knowledge to transform one's entire life.
How does Lloyd-Jones refute the separation between justification and sanctification?
Lloyd-Jones strongly refutes the idea that justification and sanctification can be separated, saying: "There is nothing which is more ridiculous, apart from being wrong and erroneous and utterly unscripturable, as to say that you can be justified without being sanctified." He criticizes the notion that you can "just believe in Christ and are saved" and then later "learn about holiness." He argues that everything in the gospel leads to holiness, making it impossible to have specialized "movements for evangelism, movements for holiness" as separate entities.
What does it mean to "hear Christ" according to the sermon?
Hearing Christ, according to Lloyd-Jones, is much deeper than just listening. He explains: "Hearing Christ is understanding it itself and all its implications, what it all is directed to and what it all means." It involves "spiritual apprehension" rather than "glib and facile believism." When someone truly hears Christ, "Christ and his gospel become the chief things in his life. He is mastered by them. He is governed and controlled by them." It means Christ determines and controls one's life completely, not just intellectually accepting facts about Him.
How does Jesus' life and ministry demonstrate the inseparability of salvation and holiness?
Lloyd-Jones demonstrates that every aspect of Jesus' life teaches holiness: His birth as "that holy thing," His sinless life ("holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners"), His teaching (the Beatitudes, emphasis on heart purity), His death (necessitated by God's holiness), His resurrection, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. He challenges: "I defy you to give me a single detail about the life of the Lord Jesus Christ... which does not inevitably, and as it were, automatically direct attention to holiness." He concludes that the cross itself is the supreme demonstration of God's holiness.
What does Lloyd-Jones mean by being "taught in Christ" rather than just "taught by Christ"?
Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that the phrase should be "taught in Christ" rather than "taught by Christ." This means learning not just doctrine about Christ from the outside, but learning as one who is in union with Christ. He explains: "If you've heard Christ, you're in Christ, and so you're learning from the inside." This teaching is "life-giving" and "life-imparting," not just transferring information. Being taught in Christ involves the Holy Spirit working through "bands of supply" from Christ as the head to every member of His body.
Why does Lloyd-Jones criticize specialized religious movements?
Lloyd-Jones criticizes specialized religious movements (like separate movements for evangelism, holiness, second coming, temperance) because he believes they represent "an utterly wrong and false division of the scripture" and "a sheer manifestation of muddled thinking." He argues that the gospel is unified and that "everything in the gospel leads to holiness." He considers it contradictory to separate evangelical messages from holiness teachings, stating that "if an evangelistic service doesn't lead to holiness, it's wrong, it's failed."
What does Lloyd-Jones identify as the first heresy that threatened early Christianity?
Lloyd-Jones identifies what he calls "false dualism" as the first heresy, which took forms like Gnosticism and Docetism. He explains that these false teachers denied that "Jesus had really come in the flesh," instead claiming "the eternal Christ took on him a kind of phantom body which he used while he was here on earth, and he went out of it before Jesus was crucified." He notes that the apostle John specifically combated this heresy by emphasizing the reality of Christ's incarnation in his first epistle.
How does Lloyd-Jones conclude his sermon on the connection between belief and behavior?
Lloyd-Jones concludes his sermon by stating that if we truly understand what Christ has done for us—coming to earth, living perfectly, dying for our sins, rising again, sending the Holy Spirit—there is only one possible response. Quoting the text, he says, "Ye have not so learned Christ," meaning true knowledge of Christ makes continuing in sin "unthinkable as well as impossible." He adds John's words that "He that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure," emphasizing that the logic connecting true belief to holy living is "inevitable."
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.