Why Theology Is Important

It's a very sad thing, isn't it, that all the Poles nowadays tell us that actually many evangelical Christians hold views that are quite unbiblical. But when we are in an era That has tended to despise the role of the mind in the Christian life. I think it really shouldn't surprise us. But this is so. And one of those polls is Ligonier's State of Theology survey.

It contains alarming results from evangelicals and should be a clarion call for all of us to return to the Word and the study of the Word. and the need for doctrine to be taught and believed in the Christian life. Welcome to the Monday edition of Renewing Your Mind. And if you'd like to explore the results of the latest State of Theology survey, you can find them at thestateoftheology.com.

Well, in service to the church, to help Christians better know what they believe and why they believe it, Ligonier's vice chairman and one of our teaching fellows, Sinclair Ferguson, recorded this brand new teaching series. It's called Theology for All. It's a 36-message overview of Christian doctrine. I'm pleased that we're able to feature it this week on Renewing Your Mind. And if you'd like quick access to the entire series, simply give a donation in support of Renewing Your Mind at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343.

And we'll unlock the series and the study guide for you in the free Ligonier app. And we'll send you a Renewing Your Mind notebook. to help you collect your thoughts and write down your notes. I trust this series will be a great help to you and your family.

Well, here's Sinclair Ferguson to begin this week's series, Theology for All. What I want to do, and I'll explain this a little more fully in a moment, is to walk us through some of the great doctrines of the Christian faith. I'm hoping that we may be able to do this in 36 sessions. And that will probably tell you two things. One is that there are a lot of doctrines in the Christian faith.

But the other thing it will probably tell you is that we're going to look at this fairly simply. Because every session that we have together in studying Christian doctrine, Christian theology, is a session that can be expanded into a whole series and perhaps even into a whole series of books. But our goal is to cover the whole of the Christian faith. And I want to try and do that in a series of five segments. And in this first segment, we're going to think especially about God.

the true and living God. But before we do that, let me step back and say three words by way of explanation. First of all, I hope this course will be Both for those of us who are beginners in Christian theology, And those who may have been on the road for many years, I hope this will be both a beginning and a refresher. There's a wonderful expression that was used, I think, first by Gregory the Great many years ago. when he spoke about the Bible as like a river, in which a lamb could wade and paddle and yet was deep enough for an elephant to swim.

And what he was saying was that the wonder of the Christian faith is. that just at the very beginning there is so much to learn. And then by the time you get to the end, what you're likely to think is, there is still so much to learn. And so what I want to try to do that will help us to focus our attention is not to sprinkle texts of Scripture in vast numbers in every one of these studies, but to usually focus on one or two particular passages. that may help us to remember what we are trying to learn and that will especially anchor what we learn in the way of theology and Christian doctrine in the scriptures.

So that we can go back for ourselves and see how this is true in the scriptures. But then the third introductory comment I want to make is to underline the importance of Christian theology. and Christian doctrine. As a minister in a congregation during the service, I would almost never look at the congregation. except at two points.

Uh to preach to them. uh when I would keep my eyes on them. Although not everyone in all congregations realizes if they can see their preacher, their preacher just by a simple law of physics can also see them. and then pronouncing the benediction. But there was one, perhaps two weeks, where at a certain point in the service I would lift up my eyes from the order of service just to see what was happening.

Those were the first two weeks of a new university year. when new students would gather. And at the point when one of the ministers would say, Christian, What do you believe? And the congregation, in our case, would respond by reciting the Apostles' Creed. I would look up to the congregation to see the youngsters who were scrabbling around to try to find their order of service, because they didn't know the Apostles' Creed off by heart, but they did want to participate.

And at that point, I often used to pray quietly, Lord. Keep him coming for another five weeks. Of course, they would be church shopping, or keep her coming for another five weeks. And perhaps some of them will write home at the end of that time, or email, I suppose, as most students would do nowadays, and say, you know, an amazing thing has happened to me since I came to college. for the very first time in my life I am able to tell you the basics of the Christian faith.

And when you think about it, that possibly may indicate to us But if we ask most Christians Tell us what the basics of the Christian faith might be. They would assume they knew. But Than they would discover That they had ideas about one thing or another thing in the Christian faith. Jesus died for our sins, God loves us. but might actually have very little knowledge and very little exposure to Christian doctrine and Christian theology.

And might even have been brought up in an environment that said. Christian doctrine doesn't really matter. That would involve study and big words. What really matters? is Christian experience.

And it's interesting and sad, really, how Christians can say that kind of thing about the Christian gospel. about Christian doctrine. But then on Tuesday when they're talking about baseball. They'll tell you statistics really do matter. Uh If you're British.

and you have no idea what's going on in baseball. And you get the positions confused, or the different kinds of pitches confused. uh then they will diminish. Don't you really understand baseball? We love baseball.

And it's true, isn't it, that when we love anything, We want to pay attention not just to it in general, But to it in detail. Actually the same would be true of cricket. If you went to the United Kingdom, if you were an American or from a country where cricket remains a mystery, and you said, What position is that man playing? And the answer was he's playing silly mid off. You might think to yourself, What a stupid thing to say about anyone What an insult and the Englishman would say Okay.

Don't you understand how important these terms are? They describe the game we love. And then actually when it comes to people we love. Then details are important, aren't they? and the way we describe the people we love.

If somebody misdescribes your parent or child or brother or sister, husband or wife or even any of your best friends, then you're quick to say, no, that's not what they're really like. This is what they are really like. And so the basic principle you see of Christian theology is. that we want to know as much and to describe as well as we can the gospel we love. And as we seek to do that using Biblical terms, and as the Apostle Paul says, coming to grasp the the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ together with all the saints.

Then, of course, we want to be students of Christian doctrine, students of Christian theology.

Now, let me try and spell this out in this introductory session. by first of all giving you Three texts. Second, giving you two reasons why theology is important. And then thirdly, using an illustration.

Well, first of all. Three texts, I think. Romans 12. Verse 1. How is it that our lives are transformed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus?

If you were to say to me, what is the very core of sanctification, progress in the Christian life, then it's what Paul says in Romans 8, 29, isn't it? God's purpose is that we should be conformed to the image of his Son.

Well, how does this transformation take place?

Well, says Paul, we are transformed. by the renewing of our minds. And if you think about it, if there is nothing in our minds. Then Our lives are not going to be renewed or transformed.

So what we're doing when we study Christian doctrine is informing our minds So that by their renewal, our lives may be transformed. I remember in the days when I used the old King James version when I was a teenager. Those lovely words in the Proverbs. As a man thinketh, In himself.

So he is. And we understand that, I think, nowadays. that the way you think and what you think and what shapes your thinking is going to come out in shaping your living.

So that's one important verse, Romans 12, verse 1 and indeed verse 2. Second important verse, I think, is Jeremiah 9, verses 23 to 24, a passage that I think the Apostle Paul loved because he cites it. You remember the words of Jeremiah? He says, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, or the strong man in his strength, or the rich man in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this. that he knows me.

That I am the Lord. I wonder if it's true that in our modern age, many of us as Christians, if we were. If we were put in a a room for ten minutes and And uh Just asked to think about God. For 10 minutes. I wonder if if we would find it easy to sustain those ten minutes.

Um We would be able to sustain those 10 minutes thinking about many things. boasting in many things. But what Jeremiah is saying is What we need most of all is to know God well enough to be able to boast in our knowledge of God, to boast in Him. And then the third verse is some words of Jesus in John 17, verse 3. He says, this is eternal life.

I think it would be a great Test question, wouldn't it give a three by five card to the congregation on the way out? with the question, what is eternal life? I think we might get a frightening number of different answers. But what Jesus says is, this is eternal life. to know you the only true God.

And Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And knowledge has content. Knowledge has content, And what we want to seek to do as Christians is to fill our minds. terms of Romans 12, 1 and 2. to have the truth of the gospel, The doctrines of the Bible.

saturate our thinking.

so that we are able to praise God for who he is. And as we learn how to do that. we learn more and more the blessings of the eternal life which is knowing God in Jesus Christ.

So three texts among many that underline the importance of what we're trying to do. And then two reasons why it's important. The first is this. We just cannot live our Christian life on the basis of our feelings. Out feelings come and go.

And we need something solid and substantial underneath us. Uh One of the books in which this comes out most clearly in the Bible is the book of Psalms, isn't it? And we could point to many Psalms to indicate how it is. That the believer in times of difficulty or distress, suffering or opposition. finds security only because of what he knows about God.

And there's a powerful illustration of that in Psalm 102. And I commend that, Sam, to your reading and to your study. because it's a psalm in which the the author feels completely desolated. He feels alone. He feels everyone is against him.

And uh he's he's wondering whether his life has any meaning. And then, as you read through the Psalm, as in other Psalms. There is this beautiful transition. from him looking at himself and his knowledge of his condition. and for a moment his eyes turn upwards.

And he says, but you, God, But you, God. And as the Psalm goes on, you realize it's what this man knows about God. that saves him from sinking into the pit of despair. I remember learning a hymn when I was a young Christian, a teenager. By a man by the name of John Campbell Shape.

It's called Twixt Gleams of Joy and Clouds of Doubt. If you have a hymn book, it may well be in it. If it isn't, it probably should be. And the first verse goes like this, Twixt gleams of joy and clouds of doubt, our feelings come and go. Our best estate is tossed about in ceaseless ebb and flow.

No mood of feeling, form of thought is constant for a day. It is not the truth. But Thou, O God, Thou changest not. The same thou art alway.

So what is this? It's simply The knowledge of the unchangeability of God. gives me stability. in a changing world.

So This is why doctrine is significant. This is why what we know about God makes a difference. There's a second reason, and it's this, that knowing Christian doctrine equips us for Christian service. Knowing Christian doctrine equips us for Christian service and also for Christian witness. Years ago, in the church I served, the young people went off on one of their annual retreats.

And some of the parents, some of the mothers went along with them, I suppose, as chaperones. And uh after they had spent a day together and had their meal over the weekend, there was an informal session where the teenagers were were peppering The parents with questions, all of them, theological questions, doctrinal questions. What does this mean? How do we understand this? What do we do in this situation?

And one of the mothers kept answering the questions. at so effectively That when the whole evening was over, one of the other mothers I discovered went to her and said, How on earth did you know the answer to all these questions? That was absolutely amazing. that you were able to respond to the questions of all these teenagers. And the mother just gave a little smile and said, They're all in the shorter catechism.

And you see what she meant. She had She had learned, perhaps learned by heart, a summary of the Christian faith. Answers to questions about doctrine. And as she had done that, she was given, as it were, a whole. Arsenal of material.

to be able to answer these questions that the youngsters were asking. And that meant that both she and then eventually they were being equipped to answer all the great questions of life, that their own contemporaries would be asking. And so, in this marvellous way, knowing Christian doctrine both builds us up and gives us a sense of stability. But It also makes us useful. I have often thought myself, as perhaps I've come away from speaking at a conference, if I only knew my doctrine better.

I would have been more practical and pastoral help. to these people. In a sense, Christian doctrine to the Christian. is like the knowledge of anatomy and physiology. to a physician.

He knows how the body is supposed to work. And so when things go wrong, He is able to discern what part of the body needs to be healed. and also how it is But the body will be healed. And we should think of Christian doctrine that way too. It's a very sad thing, isn't it, that all the polls nowadays.

among evangelical Christians. tell us that actually many evangelical Christians hold views that are quite unbiblical. And many of the polls suggest That the lifestyle of Many evangelicals. is no different from the lifestyle. of the wild.

But when we are in an era That has tended to despise the role of the mind in the Christian life. and the importance of doctrine in Christian living. and has demeaned theology as And a pursuit that all of us need to engage in. I think it really shouldn't surprise us. That this is so.

So theology is important. It gives us a framework for living. It helps us to negotiate our way through the world. It equips us to be able to answer the questions, the increasing number of questions. That non-Christians have.

Some of them exploratory because they don't know the answer, and of course, some of them hostile. Because they hate the Christian gospel. And I think it does something else, a knowledge of Christian theology. knowledge of Christian doctrine. gives us what we might think of as velcro strips.

in our minds. that enable us to retain more and more of the teaching of Scripture. that we are being given. Let me try and illustrate this. A lady in a congregation I served said to me one day, you can tell it was a while ago, she said, I've listened to the cassette of your sermon on whatever it was, five times.

And every time I learned something new.

Now she said it her whole disposition was one of encouragement. And I knew that she loved the word, and she loved me, and she loved our church. And she was wanting to encourage me. But do you know I thought You know, my dear lady, I didn't say this I hoped it would become true, but I didn't actually say it. My dear lady, I think if you had a better grasp of Christian doctrine You could probably it wasn't such a difficult sermon, incidentally.

You could probably have taken that in. Just by listening twice. The reason you listened five times and were still learning something new. was because Much of what you were hearing was not sticking. into the velcro strips that an understanding of Christian doctrine would have put right into your mind.

And that's true, isn't it? It's true that our understanding of Scripture and our understanding of how it applies. It doesn't happen randomly. It grows. Exponentially.

As we begin to see how different Christian doctrines, truths fit into what the scriptures teach. We're then in a position to Remember more that scripture teaches because, in a sense, we've a place to put it. We we understand. If you think about it like this, many churches sing hymns and songs, but have no hymn book or song book. And so if you said to them, What category did that song belong to?

They would say, I didn't even know it belonged to a category. And so by and large, they don't build up a sense of... what these songs are intended to do to them. because they don't have places to put them. And this is one of the many benefits of the study of Christian theology.

It gives us places to hold on to. The exposition of scripture. And at the end of the day, that's bound to mean. that we'll get to know our Lord Jesus Christ much better. And isn't that what we want?

Not a mere academic pursuit of knowledge, but to get to know our Lord Jesus Christ much better. Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham and I'm glad you're with us today as we feature a brand new series with Sinclair Ferguson, Theology for All. R. C.

Sproll often reminded us that doctrine matters. And as you heard Dr. Ferguson say today, doctrine serves almost like velcro strips to help what we hear and learn to stick.

So please consider taking the time to study this 36 message series, a study that, by God's grace, I'm confident will help you in your daily pursuit to follow Christ. We'll unlock this new series for you in the free Ligonier app as our way of saying thank you for your donation at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. We'll also unlock the study guide. This could be a wonderful study to use in your small group this summer or fall, and the study guide makes that even easier. And in addition to the series, we'll send you a Renewing Your Mind notebook.

Perhaps when your friends at church ask you, what does Renewing Your Mind mean? you can introduce them to the podcast.

So, give your donation now at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes. And if you live outside of the US and Canada, the series and study guide are waiting for you at renewingyourmind.org/slash global. Thank you. Our God is the God who reveals himself.

So how has he done that? and what is the response of the unbeliever? Join us tomorrow as we continue Theology for All here on Renewing Your Mind.