Seeking to Comprehend
A Sermon on Ephesians 3:19
Originally preached March 17, 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
This sermon is for those who long to have a close relationship with God and perhaps have noticed that the pursuit of worldly things fails to provide any lasting peace or joy. In this sermon on Ephesians 3:19 titled “Seeking to Comprehend,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preaches this sermon from Paul’s letter and shows how one can get to this point of intimacy they desire so strongly. First, they must pray without ceasing for themselves that God would strengthen their inner self according to His glorious might and power. This is especially important because as one actively seeks to know God more, they will become targets of Satan. It is essential that one prays for strength to persevere through the attacks that Jesus promised will come their way as they follow Him. Second, in order to know Him intimately, one must seek the Lord Himself, not just ideas about Him. Even for Christians, it is easy today to reduce a relationship with God to an abstract, intellectual concept. This, however, will not lead to intimacy. Third, one must seek His love. However, Dr. Lloyd-Jones also has a warning — the Christian must never think of their relationship with God as something where they will always get the desired results as long as they push the right buttons. This is not true in the spiritual life because the Christian is dealing with a relationship, not a mechanical robot. Listen as Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains how one can avoid this pitfall and how they can know God on a deep level.
Sermon Breakdown
- Get rid of the mechanical notion that doing certain things will automatically lead to knowing Christ's love. It is about a personal relationship, not following a formula.
- We must pray continually for God to strengthen us by his Spirit in our inner being so we can know Christ's love. We will face spiritual attack and need strength.
- We must seek the Lord himself, not just ideas about him or general spiritual experiences. We can live on meetings, books, and others' experiences instead of truly knowing Christ.
- We must remember that Christ dwells within us by faith. Realizing this is key to sanctification and overcoming sin.
- Having done the previous steps, we must actively and positively seek to know Christ's love in its fullness. We must go to him and seek him like the psalmists and Paul did.
- We should ask Christ to assure us of his love for us, like the hymn "Tell Me Thou Art Mine, O Savior". We naturally desire assurance of love from those we care about.
- There are more principles to come on how exactly to seek Christ's love. But we have covered preliminary but vital points.
- We must reject a mechanical view of the Christian life and instead focus on personally knowing the Christ who dwells in and with us.
Sermon Q&A
How Can Christians Experience the Love of Christ in a Deeper Way?
What does Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones warn against when seeking to know the love of Christ?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones strongly warns against a mechanical approach to knowing Christ's love. He explains: "This matter must never be thought of in mechanical terms. What I mean by that is this. It must never be thought of in this way, that as long as I do certain things, then inevitably and automatically I shall have the blessing." He compares this erroneous approach to a slot machine, where you insert money and automatically receive something in return. This mechanical view fails because we are dealing with personal relationships, not formulas. As Lloyd-Jones notes, "In the realm of personal relationships, mechanics don't count. Indeed, they can be the greatest possible hindrance."
According to Lloyd-Jones, how should Christians position themselves to receive spiritual blessings?
While we cannot command God's blessings, Lloyd-Jones teaches that we can "put ourselves in the way of blessing." Using the biblical example of blind Bartimaeus, he explains: "He had heard that the Lord Jesus Christ was to be passing along a certain road and he was wise enough to take up his pitch by the side of that road. And that is all that you and I can do. The Lord walks along certain roads. It is his custom and is happy to pass in certain directions." By positioning ourselves where Christ typically works and moves, we increase our likelihood of encountering Him, though Lloyd-Jones emphasizes we cannot guarantee or manipulate the outcome.
Why does Lloyd-Jones say Christians need to be "strengthened with might" to experience Christ's love?
Lloyd-Jones provides two key reasons. First, the experience of Christ's love is so powerful that it can "almost shatter the human frame," requiring divine strengthening to withstand it. He references biblical figures who encountered God and were overwhelmed, noting how Isaiah cried "woe is me" and John "fell down as one dead." Second, and more importantly, seeking a deeper knowledge of Christ's love will trigger spiritual warfare: "As certainly as we set out in this endeavor, we shall become the targets of the very special and unusual attack of the devil." Lloyd-Jones explains that "baptismal moments are always followed by a temptation in the wilderness," just as Jesus was tempted after His baptism.
What does it mean to "seek the Lord himself" according to the sermon?
To seek the Lord himself means to pursue a personal relationship with Christ rather than merely acquiring knowledge about Him. Lloyd-Jones warns: "There is an awful danger of being content with ideas and truths about the Lord Jesus Christ instead of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ himself." He confesses his own guilt in this area: "You are allowing the very doctrine about him to hide him from your eyes. What a tragic thing that is. I plead guilty to having done that for years in my own life." Similarly, he cautions against living on spiritual experiences, meetings, or books rather than on Christ Himself. The goal is direct communion with the person of Christ, not secondhand spiritual experiences.
How does Lloyd-Jones explain the importance of Christ's indwelling presence for spiritual growth?
Lloyd-Jones teaches that realizing Christ dwells within believers is "the most transforming thing that can happen to anybody" and "the essence of sanctification." Rather than merely striving for moral improvement, believers should constantly remind themselves of Christ's presence within them. He references 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul teaches that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, making sin unthinkable. Lloyd-Jones recommends this practical approach: "When next you're tempted, when the devil comes and tempts you to any sin in any shape or form, you stop and you say, what? Incredible, unthinkable, impossible. The Holy Ghost dwells within me. My body is his temple. Christ is in me."
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.