Transcription
Okay, would you please, uh, join me in prayer?
Father, I just want to thank you for everybody here and everybody watching online. Uh, we thank you for just how good it is of you to reveal yourself to us. And you're inexhaustible, so you couldn't reveal everything about yourself because we will spend all of eternity constantly learning about you, growing. You get to know you better, progressing in our sanctification. Though we will not be able to sin anymore, we will still grow in knowledge and grow in the application of that knowledge forever. And so, the study of theology doesn't end here; it continues on into eternity. And you are inexhaustible in the truth about you, so we will ever be learning and growing. It will never be boring.
God, I thank you for each person here, and I just pray that as we embark on the study on theology, that it would be absolutely life-transforming. That the truths that we talk about would not just impact us in our thinking, but also in our behavior. And that we would become more and more like Jesus every time we study, every time we gather together. That we would progress in our lives to become transformed in the likeness of Christ. And the Apostle Paul said that is the goal of the Christian life in Romans 8:29, that we would conform to the image of Christ. So shed from our lives that which is not of you, that which is not like you. Take it away. And in its place, may we be like Jesus, and may we please you more as a result of our gathering together in the coming months and even years. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, Amen. Amen.
Okay, so what we're going to do is we're looking at this, "Why Study Systematic Theology?" A class introduction. If you're watching on video, we'll have these sheets available as PDFs for you to follow as well. So, I'm going to do three different sections here. The first section is the purpose of studying systematic theology, and we'll revisit this as well as we do our next session together, Chapter One, which is "Why Study Systematic Theology?" But I'm gonna give you some more reasons here. We're going to look at who Wayne Grudem is, who is this guy that has written this massive book that's going to make you muscular? And then we're also going to look at guidelines that will help you for fruitful study, along the lines of how you can maximize your time in the understanding and the application of theological truth.
So, um, six points under the purpose of studying systematic theology. The first is to learn to think theologically. John MacArthur said this: "He said, the evangelical church no longer has the ability to fight error because it doesn't know the truth." That is the biggest problem in Christianity worldwide is people don't know what they believe and why they believe it because they're biblically ignorant. And they're not only because they're biblically ignorant, they're theologically ignorant. That the best way to develop your theology is to read your Bible. And Wayne Grudem is a guy who loves the Bible. He's studied the Bible his whole life. He's humble, he's godly. He's not just his knowledge that we're gonna get, but his life is worth emulating because he is a man who is in love with Jesus and is like Jesus.
And so, the goal is that we love truth, but that we also become more and more like Jesus along the way. Secondly, to develop a theological framework to think through. So, I call that "God lenses." I wear glasses, and whether you wear glasses or not, all of us, as far as I know, can see. Some of us see better than others. But I, I view that the way we should see the world, both visually but also from our hearts and our minds, is through the lenses. It starts with God. It's in the middle, it's God. And in the end, it's God, and He gets all the glory. And the biggest problem in the church, outside of not knowing the truth, I think, because they don't know the truth and they don't know theology and they don't know their Bibles, they believe that life is about me. It's about man. Life is not about you; it's about God. And the more you get to know God, you realize why that's true, and it actually leads to joy and satisfaction and purpose and meaning. And the most miserable people in the world, I guarantee you, are the most man-centered people in the world. People who have come to me for counseling who are the most miserable, I already know the reason they're miserable is because they're great idolaters. They love themselves or something else more than God, and that's why they're miserable. The people that I know that have the most joy, the most satisfaction, the most purpose, the most meaning, the most passion, the most dynamism, are the people that are in love with Jesus. And you can't love what you don't know. So, the more you know Him, the more passion you get. The more your, your vision becomes all about Him rather than about you. Because the world's going to tell you over and over again, every commercial you see, it's all about you. "You deserve a break today. Come to McDonald's." Because it's all about you. And then they feed you food that's going to kill you overnight, right?
All right. So, in this book, this is Wayne Grudem. Under number two, he says, "In this book, this one, Systematic Theology, in this book, the goal is to enable Christians to put into their theological jigsaw puzzle as many pieces with as much accuracy as possible and to encourage Christians to go on putting in more and more correct pieces for the rest of their lives." And I love that analogy. I've used that before. I don't know if I got it from him, but I love the picture of when you read the Bible and you study theology together, what it starts doing is it's just like Dana and I and Johnny put together a thousand-piece puzzle. Usually, we do 500-piece puzzles. We will never do a thousand-piece puzzle again. That's our last time. It took way too long. Fortunately, had letters on the back side so you could see if they lined up, so that helped tremendously. But for next year, we're going to do a 500-piece puzzle. But usually, what you do when you do a puzzle is you, you, you have a picture of the puzzle, so you know what you're putting together. That helps. And then another thing that helps is, is laying out the outer side. Almost everybody I know, that's how they do a puzzle. You put the whole outside together, and then you start working your way in, or do sections based on colors or whatever. But basically, what happens is, without the picture, it's very, it would be very difficult to put together a puzzle, especially the more pieces it has. And the Bible, 66 books, you know, 39 Old Testament books, 27 New Testament books, which are really all one book, just broken down into pieces. And then you have all the verses, over a thousand verses of scripture, and you're trying to put all that together. And when you read your Bible, which I would encourage you, read your Bibles, read through some kind of Bible program that keeps you on track every day in the Word. But also when you study theology and you're reading the Bible, what happens is the pieces start getting put together. And what I think happens when you do that is the biggest, what ends up, what you end up visualizing the puzzle is Jesus. Because the whole Bible is about Him from Genesis to Revelation. If you miss Jesus, you miss the Bible. You need to start the puzzle over. You've somehow connected pieces that don't fit. And so studying theology starts putting all the pieces together.
Okay, third, to grow in discipleship and obedience to Christ and apply God's truth to everyday life. So, this is a discipleship class. This is about your growth, your walk with Jesus. And as you're learning this, you're applying it. You're becoming more like Him, you're thinking like Him, acting like Him, speaking more like Him, becoming more like Him. And that's a good thing, a very good thing. It's the best thing that could ever happen to you is to become like Jesus. Number four, to develop an insatiable appetite for theology. Now, theology used to be called the Queen of the Sciences. In other words, that anything you study, because all truth is God's truth, that's what Augustine said. So if you study math, uh, science, art, you know, whatever, any subject, all, anything that's true in that subject is because God has made it so. Everything that exists, He made. So whenever we're studying anything, you can trace it back to God. And if you don't trace it back to God, if you don't start with God, you're missing His design. That's why the world is such a mess. For instance, in terms of gender stuff, it's, it's, we're saying, "I feel this." Well, who cares what you feel? Is it true? Is it right? Is it God's design? That's the, that's the point. But when you get away from God, all hell breaks loose. And that's just the way it is.
So, um, because what's happened in this, in universities, I was gonna, forgot to do this, but I was gonna bring Harvard's original charter statement today. And if you read Harvard's original charter statement, or Brown University, or Yale University, or Princeton, or any of the Ivy League schools, they were all founded to give God glory. They were all founded to train pastors and missionaries. And if you studied anything else, you started with God. You actually met, you had a Master's in God, and everything else was less than that. Now, it's the opposite. You kick out God, and then you study. And that's why, why do you think the world's such a mess? That's exactly why. That's exactly why. And so, we've thrown out the designer, we've thrown out the Creator, we've thrown out the One for which we live and give glory, and we wonder why we're in such a mess. So, this is why theology is the most important thing you can study. And then anything else that you study comes under the rubric of theology. And so, that's why this class is so important. I, I want you to know that in, at Harvard and all those other schools, they don't call it a theology department anymore. They call it a religion department. And we're going to talk about that in the Q&A time. But I want you to think about that in between now and then, because I'm going to talk more about that. But what's the difference between, why is it significant that departments that used to be theology departments, were seminaries that used to teach theology, and now it's a religion department? Why is that significant? Think about that. We'll talk about that in a bit.
Okay. Be there many in our culture say that they're not interested in theology. "Just give me Jesus," they say. Well, if anybody says, "I, you know, I don't want to get bogged down in all this theology, I just love Jesus." Well, then ask him the question, "Well, who is Jesus?" And once you ask him that question, what are they talking about? Theology. Okay. So, everybody is a theologian. It's just, let's see there, everyone's a theologian. It's just whether you're a good one or a bad one. But everybody's, your neighbor is a theologian, even if they didn't give a rip about God. They still have some view of God. And most people are foolish enough to say they don't believe in God, but that's, that's still being a theologian. That's a bad theologian. And so, we want to be good theologians. And the only way to be good theologians is to study the Bible and study people that God has gifted the church with, like Wayne Grudem, that are great theologians that make the Bible come alive and understandable and explain it. Teachers are a gift to the church, in my opinion. They're the greatest gift because teachers help you to understand what God's like, how to be like Him, and how to apply it in your life. So, it helps you in every area of your life. And so, I love teachers.
And then five, a fifth purpose of studying systematic theology is worship. To worship the God. I think I wrote that wrong, but anyway, look at the next, the phrase there. "The goal of theology is the worship of God. The posture of theology is on one's knees. The mode of theology is repentance." That's Sinclair Ferguson. Sinclair Ferguson is one of my favorite theologians. Uh, he's the one that, you know, he's good when R.C. Sproul chose him to speak at his funeral, the main speaker. You can watch it on YouTube. The main speaker, and you should watch it. It's a great, John MacArthur speaks out at, uh, Sinclair Ferguson. It's a wonderful celebration of a man that lived just a wonderful life. Um, but yeah, you, you know, you're a good theologian if R.C. Sproul picks you to be the main speaker at your funeral. Um, but Sinclair Ferguson said that, and I love that. The goal of theology is the worship of God. So, when you study, you know, I know some of you probably aren't students, you don't consider yourself students. This book seems intimidating to you. It's like, man, this is a lot of reading, and I don't understand these words. Stop and realize what you're doing is you're getting to know God. You're getting to know the One that loves you more than anyone, the One that created you, the One that designed you, the One that loves you more than anyone, the One that has a plan for you. You wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Him, and the reason you exist is for Him. So, realize that this is an opportunity for you to worship God with your mind. And, and just when you have a hard time, remember that. Just push through it. And, uh, God's gonna give you strength. And so, I would just say, you know, pray before you read this and say, "God, open my eyes that I might say wonderful things. Take my heart, and heart, take my attitude, take all those things, and please shape me and mold me as I do this." And, and have a good attitude about it. Um, and so, the posture is on one's knees. Um, I can't tell you how many times I have to speak on, uh, to speak. I wouldn't say have to, I love, I love to speak. But there are times where I speak where I'm like, "Gosh, how in the world could I possibly convey this?" And I feel so inadequate to convey how great God is. And for me, I feel like I'm sinning sometimes because I haven't done as good a job as I possibly could have done in conveying how awesome God is. And I've fallen so far, far short of that. But I believe that God's pleased with the fact that I struggle with that, and that I'm on my knees before Him saying, "God, how can I do a better job of conveying?" I feel so inadequate to do this, but somebody's got to do it, and You've called me to do it, so I'm going to do the best I can. But I can't tell you how many times I leave here discouraged because it's like, God is so much bigger than the way I was able to say it. And, but I believe God's still pleased with that. And I believe God's still pleased with you, just the fact that you desire that, that you want that, that you want people to know Jesus, and you want to get better at conveying that and believing that. And then he says, "The mode of theology is repentance." Um, studying theology is gonna make you realize you're a bigger sinner than you, than you think you are. Now, I don't care how long you live, the older you get, if you're a mature Christian, you're gonna see yourself as a greater sinner. That's the bad news. The good news is you have a great, gracious Savior. And the more you study theology, the more aware you're going to be of your sin and the sin around you. But instead of becoming judgmental, you're also going to understand, "Wow, how gracious God has been to me, and how gracious I need to be with others." And so, repentance goes with theology. If God showed up right now, I don't think we would dance. I don't think we would sing. I think we would fall on our faces before the holiness of God. I think that's exactly what we do. Why do I believe that? Because that's what everybody did in the Bible. And so, when we really see God, when we really know Him, we see Him through the lenses of scripture, He's going to become greater and bigger and mightier and more powerful and more holy, and we're going to become pip squeaks who are just blown away by the fact that He would condescend to have a relationship with me. And that's what theology does when you study it rightly.
And then lastly, number six, to develop relationships where we feel free to share and hold one another accountable as men and women of God. And so, uh, we're go, you know, we're gonna really enjoy each other's company and each other's community, and we're gonna learn from it. You're not just going to learn from me; I'm going to learn from you. You're going to learn from your neighbor. That's the beauty of studying theology in community is we get to see how God's working in your life and hear from that and pray for each other. So, that's going to be a big part of our time together.
Real quick, who's Wayne Grudem? Okay, who wrote the, who wrote this monster book? Well, Wayne Grudem is a former professor of systematic theology at Trinity Seminary, which at the time, I think, was the best seminary in the world. It had the, the best faculty as far as scholarship, godliness, and practicality. I, I don't know if they still take that place. I think Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky has taken their place now, and I'm the re-, part of the reasons they've stolen a lot of faculty from them, or a lot of the faculty have left Trinity to go to Southern. Um, but he currently teaches at Phoenix Seminary. He's currently 74 years old and he has Parkinson's. So, pray for him because he still has work to do. He's an amazing gift to the church, and I hope he writes more books because his books are phenomenal and incredibly helpful. Used worldwide. This is the most used, uh, over 750,000 copies of this book. That's, you have no idea how much that is for a theology book. Okay. Uh, it's remarkable. So, it's been translated in many languages, and it's in Spanish. You have your Spanish one? Yeah, we've got Juan Carlos has it in Spanish over here. And, uh, so that's great. So, okay.
Um, he again, is a brilliant guy. He teaches, if you ever want to hear him live, he teaches at Scottsdale Bible Church on Sunday. Uh, when Dana and I have been there twice and heard him. As a matter of fact, we got invited by somebody we sat with to stay there next time we went for baseball, but we never got to. He's earned four degrees from Harvard University, Westminster Seminary, and Cambridge. He did his PhD at Cambridge on the gift of prophecy today, and what that is. His theological background, number two, is drawn out in the preface where he describes himself as taking a reformed or Calvinistic approach to the scriptures. And he was one of the main editors for the New Testament translation of the ESV Bible, which we use for discipleship, preaching, study, classes, and so forth. We use the English Standard Version, the New Testament. He was the main editor for the whole New Testament. So, he worked with the top scholars in the world to get us what I consider the top, the best Bible for study and reading that there is today. He's also authored some great books. Christian Ethics. Those of you who are businessmen and businesswomen, "Business for the Glory of God." It's only about 100 pages, but if you want to make, if you want to make an impact where you work for the glory of God, read that book. I, I was a guy in my discipleship, read it. He's a businessman. He says the best book he's ever read on business, and specifically, it's, "How do I bring glory to God in the world doing business?" So, that's a phenomenal book. And, and what's nice about it, it's only about 120 pages. It's, it's not a huge book, okay, but very helpful. He's written a book along with a few others, edited a book called "Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique." Which I'm reading with my son. We're dialoguing over it. It is this big. There's, there's 27 chapters written by some of the best theologians, scientists, and philosophers in the world today, as a critique of, of theistic evolution. And it is, uh, it's hard reading. It's not easy to read. But if you have a scientific background or in the sciences, you'd especially want to read that. "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood," which again, is as big as this book. Everything you want to know about what the Bible has to say about what it means to be a man and a woman, and how that works in homes and in the local church. "Politics According to the Bible," which is basically everything the Bible has to say about politics. And "The Gift of Prophecy" is a layman's version of his doctoral dissertation, and that's in print. And so, if you want to know what the gift of prophecy is all about today, that's on that. And then he's written a bunch of others, and you can go to his website, see all, everything he's written. There's articles on there, there's videos, there's audio, tons of stuff. It's all free. And so, he's got a great website.
This is the best systematic theology I've read. I've read about 50 systematic theologies that are all, some of them are, believe it or not, are bigger than this. I have eight volumes of Lewis Berkhof's Systematic Theology, so it's eight volumes, and it's, it's about five times the size. I've read that. Um, I've read Calvin's Institutes, which is about the same. Um, I'm working on reading Luther's Complete Works, but I'll never finish that. He just wrote too much. I'm working on reading everything Edwards wrote, and I'll never finish that because he just wrote too much. But the reason there's so much theology, especially the older guys, is they weren't distracted by all the new the stuff going on. They thought about God. They walked in the fields and thought about God and prayed to God, and they were saturated with God. So, if you read Spurgeon or any of the old, read the dead guys, okay? And the dead guys can't fall. They're already dead, okay? So they're not going to be like Ravi Zacharias. They finished well. Um, but read the old guys. I'm more convinced C.S. Lewis said that for every new book you read, read two or three old ones. And it's because, again, the more modern we get, we think we're smarter. We're actually dumber, and we're more influenced by the world, the flesh, and the devil than they used to be. And, uh, so read the old guys. And, but, but again, as far as I'm concerned, this is the best systematic theology for laypeople, for the average Christian out there. And so, it's a privilege to be able to study it with you.
Grudem said, "Theology is the study of God in all His works. Theology is meant to be lived and prayed and sung." That's why we're always going to close our time with prayer and singing. And then, "True theology is teaching which accords with godliness" (1 Timothy 6:3). And theology, when studied rightly, will lead to growth in our Christian lives and to worship.
Okay, a few guidelines for fruitful study. This discipleship group is specifically formed to grow us deeply in the truths on which our faith is based. If you invest in knowing Him and making Him known, you will be truly satisfied and overflow with joy. And here's one of my favorite scriptures: Psalm 16:11, "You God, make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Man, if you want pleasures forevermore and you want joy, know God. Spend time with God. This class gives you an opportunity to spend more time with God. And if you spend more time with God, you're going to have more pleasure and you're going to have more joy. What the world offers, what the world, the flesh, and the devil offers, is temporary pleasure with, with grave consequences. Okay? What God offers is great pleasure and joy with great consequences that are good. Okay?
So, five things to help you get the most out of this class. First is preparation. Take plenty of time to thoughtfully and critically read each chapter and come prepared to dialogue. Okay? Do the workbook. Read the chapter. Underline it. Highlight. Write in this book. Write it. Take notes. Get into it. Dive into it. Think about it. Do the application questions in the book and be prepared to talk about some of those when we come together. The more you prepare, the more you're going to get out of the class. Okay?
Secondly, prayer. Bathe your study in prayer and ask God to grow you deeply in the Christian faith. I would say, before you study, pray. While you're studying, stop and pray. And when you finish, pray. Use this as, as a time to be intimate with God. You know, like if I'm sitting with Dana at a restaurant and, and I want to compliment her, um, why not do it right then and there? And what it does is it makes our time even better. You know, is, she going to enjoy her meal less if I look at her and say, "You know what, you're really beautiful"? Is that going to make the time better, or is it going to make it worse? Is it going to ruin the time? No, it's going to make it better. When you study theology, take the time to, when you read a verse like this, "Wow, God, that is amazing that you've told me that if I spend more time in Your presence, I'm going to have more joy. Thank you for that." Don't just read it. Don't just think about it. Do something about it. I, I think too often we disconnect our head and our heart and our hands. We need to do all that together. And so, take the time to work. Make it a worship experience. When you study your Bible, make it a worship experience. When you study theology, make it a worship experience. What are you doing? You're getting to know God better. But don't just listen to Him. Talk back. Not in a smart-alecky, you know, smart-alecky way, but talk back saying, "God, thanks so much for this truth." And take the time to just stop and pray and go, "Wow, God, what an amazing God you are." I, I hope when you come back next time, next week or two weeks from now, you're going to come back and go, "Man, I love God even more. Wow, God's even bigger than I thought He was. I'm even smaller than I thought I was." You know, those kinds of things should be the kinds of things that are happening.
Third, priority of study. Carve out us, I would recommend that you carve out a specific time, a few times a week. Don't just, don't procrastinate and wait till the night before. Do a little. The best way is just do a little bit every day. But another good way to do it is take a few days, Monday, Wednesday, whatever works for you. Carve out half an hour, an hour, whatever works for you. And again, always look ahead at what you're going to be doing next, because sometimes the chapters are short, sometimes they're really long. I mean, some, some chapters are about 100 pages. So, I just want to warn you, uh, that they're all not 20 pages, or sometimes they're 100 pages. And so, make sure you look ahead and, and plan accordingly. I would encourage you, be there. I would encourage you to get a notebook specifically for this group and record your findings and questions, and make it an important part of your theological library. Again, I'm going to have outlines every week. I'm going to have notes. I'm going to have different things to hand out. You're going to want to keep all those together. So, have some kind of system for that.
Number four, pledge to commit. Be faithful in attendance. Sporadic attendance makes for poor group chemistry. I've started this group when I started this group a few years ago when I first started at our church, I think we had 50 people in the class, and then it dwindled to about 15. You know, it's a long class, it takes a few years to go through this. But stick with it. Stick with it. Don't, you know, even if it's hard for some of you, it's going to be hard. Some of you love to read and you love to study. Some of you don't. And so, for those of you who don't, it's going to be a little bit more difficult. But break it down, and again, view it as a worship time with God, and commit to it. I, I believe that if you go through this whole book, first of all, you'll be able to tell somebody you read over a thousand-page book. But more importantly, that's, that's a lot of truth that's sinking into your head and heart. And that if you're applying it along the way, if you're praying to the Lord, if you're spending time, uh, wisely, you're gonna grow, and you're going to be more like Jesus. And that's the goal. And God's going to use that.
And then promptness. Please be on time. You know, I, it's a pet peeve of mine when people come late to classes or to church. Because if you hadn't, if Jesus called you up and said, "Meet me at IHOP at 8 AM Friday," I doubt any of you would be late. And if you are, shame on you, okay? Because that's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So, when we're coming together, you're coming to be with God and His people, and there's nothing more important than that. Uh, you wouldn't be late if the President called you up in the United, well, I'd be late if the current president. I don't even think I'd show up anyway. Sorry. I, I don't know. Maybe I should have said that. But, um, yeah, there are certain presidents that I'd want to be. If Abraham Lincoln, okay, when he was alive, called me up and said, "Hey," although he had no phones back then, but anyway, if he, uh, notified me that I was to meet with him, I'd be on time. Or Ronald Reagan. But anyway.
All right. Well, let me pray for us, and then we'll dive into our Q&A time.
Father, I just want to thank You for, uh, again, the gift of being able to study theology. And I thank You for Your gifts to the church, men like Wayne Grudem, who have devoted their lives to knowing You and communicating others with others about You. And it increases our joy, it increases our pleasure when we hear about You and learn about You and study You and gather together to talk about You. So, Lord, I pray that the lenses through which we see everything as we leave this class, every time, would be more clear in the sight of who You are, knowing about You, how to convey You to those around us, so that others could also gain the pleasure that's everlasting and the joy that can never be taken away, that's found in Christ. In Jesus' name. Amen.