Truth For Life

Bob Lepine: Many people think of God as a divine being who watches and listens from far away. Today on Truth For Life, Alistair Begg takes a closer look at our majestic God, His providence, His power, and His enduring presence in the life of believers. Let's open our Bibles to Ephesians chapter four.

Alistair Begg: Here we are at this final phrase. Who would have thought for a moment that we would go through this in such a way that one would be left with the challenge and responsibility of speaking on who is over all and through all and in all? This is actually passed over in large measure by the commentators. So you can go in the commentaries and look, well, I wonder what they have to say about this. Pretty well nothing. And they move almost directly to verse seven.

But here we are. We made a promise that we would consider it, so consider it we shall. We'll take them each in turn. First of all, over all. This God and Father of all is over all. I try to help myself through this by thinking first of all in terms of place, then in terms of power, and then in terms of presence. So when we think of God the Father as over all, perhaps we can think in terms of His place. Sometimes we will say to someone, and what is your place in all of this?

The answer that the Bible gives concerning the God and Father of all is that His place is the place of supremacy. He is over all. A good cross-reference for Ephesians 4:6, and one that helps us, is Romans chapter 11 and verse 36, which reads very similarly. I wondered didn't Paul have one or the other in mind as he penned these? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. From Him, through Him, to Him.

In other words, and very simply, but importantly, we notice that when we turn to our Bibles and when we're introduced to the Christian faith, the Christian faith starts with God. It actually doesn't start with us. Not only does it start with God, but it continues with God, and it ends with God. Paul has made it very clear that the ultimate plan of God, the ultimate purpose of God, a purpose which begins in all of eternity, His ultimate end both by creation and by redemption, His ultimate end is actually not our happiness, but His glory. Not humanity's well-being, but His own glory.

You say, well, are you sure? Yeah, I'm not just sure, I'm positive. Ephesians, we don't need to go out of Ephesians and we get at least hints of it. Verse 5 from chapter 1, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace. That's the end, to the praise of His glorious grace. If you go down to verse 12, still in chapter 1, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. Verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, that's the Holy Spirit, until we acquire possession of it in all of its fullness, and once again, to the praise of His glory.

So we worship God the Father of all as He who is over all. Speaking of His supremacy, of His authority, of His majesty. The confession, that's the Westminster Confession in chapter 21, section 1, which introduces us to the nature of Christian worship, begins by telling us that this God who has revealed Himself to us ought to be feared, loved, praised, prayed to, trusted in, and served with all the heart, all the soul, and all the mind.

And when you think of it, even though Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-eternal and co-equal, yet when we read our Bibles we discover that the Son subordinated Himself to the plan and purpose of the Father, as did the Holy Spirit. Speaking in terms of their relationship with one another, in terms of God's being over all, and according to His grand design, which in verse 9 and 10 of chapter 1 is recorded as making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Now when you think about that and you come back to what Paul is saying here, urging the people to be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, and he says, you know, the unity that God looks for is the very unity that exists within the Trinity itself, so that the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their bonds of love for one another provides both the basis and the objective of our love for each other and the maintaining of a spirit of genuine care. That is what we might say concerning over all. We might think of it in terms of place.

And then through all. We can think of this in terms of providence or if you like in terms of power. I was just looking for three Ps and I find this quite helpful. What does it mean that He is through all? Well, in the mix of everything. Every so often I used to watch my mother baking and putting things into that flour and it was clear that the whole objective was that it would be worked into the essence of what was being created.

And when Paul writes in this way, he's essentially reminding us that the Father is working through all things, that He is upholding the church that He has created, that He is sustaining it by His power, and that throughout all of history this one God who is Father of all, who is over all, is actually in and through it all. It's wonderful. Again, I always retreat to a hymn when I don't really know how to get my head around it. God is working His purpose out as year succeeds to year. God is working His purpose out and the time is drawing near, and nearer and nearer draws the time, the time that will surely be when the earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.

Well, you say, it doesn't seem like that. I've read the history of the United States of America and this kind of evening service was commonplace years ago. The churches were open, the lights were on, the doors were there, the people were spilling out into the evening of the start of a new day. But now by and large they're dark, there are no lights on, there's no one spilling anywhere. So it wouldn't seem as if God is actually through it all.

Well, the Ephesians might have felt the same way when they looked out on the world in which they lived, when they were aware of the fact that there would arise among them fierce wolves that would drive people away after them, that they were confronted by the possibility of their own moral and spiritual declension. So it's no surprise that Paul when he prays for them, and you'll remember this in chapter 1 again, he prays for them that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that you might know the hope, what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His great might.

Paul says, you Ephesians need to have the eyes of your hearts enlightened because if you don't have them enlightened in this way, you'll be tempted to think wrongly about everything and you may actually miss the point. And we may miss the point too. Again, we can think in very atomized terms, we can think in very individualistic terms, in very Western terms, in terms of the Northern Hemisphere rather than the Southern Hemisphere.

But if we think about it for just a moment, if we could stand back far enough from it, if we could see just a glimpse from the perspective of God's heavenly throne as it were, we would realize that it is absolutely true. He is over all and He is at work through it all. That's why one of the reasons that we've been given the book of Revelation, not so that we can preach speculative sermons about it, but in order that we might understand that this is really true, that God the Father is in the position of authority.

If we had time, I would read out loud for you chapter four and chapter five of Revelation, but I'm not going to. But I am going to read a couple of verses just to give us the flavor of it. John in Revelation gives us a little bit of a glimpse of these things, and he pulls the curtain back as it were, and he describes the four living creatures with wings and eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come," this tri-personal God.

And what happens then? Well, he tells us whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and they worship Him who lives forever and ever. And they cast their crowns before the throne saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created."

Into chapter five, verse 11, then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, same story, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them saying, "He's over all! He's over all! To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever." And the four living creatures said, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshipped.

What a picture. You say, is there Monday tomorrow? Of course there is. I've got to go back in that place again. Of course you have. We all have, to one degree or another, or there is something that is uncertain to me or bedeviling to me or whatever it might be. Tell me what I'm supposed to do, pastor. I don't know what you're supposed to do, but I know what you're supposed to know: that the one God and Father of all is over all and He is at work through all.

And finally, He is in all. If His over-all speaks to His place and if through-all speaks to His providence or His power, then in-all speaks to His presence. Paul has already moved in this direction in his letter in verse 22 at the end of chapter 2. He has described the church there. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. He is the foundation, He is the cornerstone. The apostles have given to us the scriptures under the direction of the Spirit. The whole structure is being put together. He's putting a temple together.

Verse 19 of chapter 3, he says, "And my prayer for you is that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." You remember how Jesus prayed to this end in His high priestly prayer, John 17 verse 21, or 20, we start there. I don't ask, says Jesus to the Father, I don't ask for these only, that's His immediate friends, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. That includes you and me, that they may all be one just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. Do you get that? That just as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You, so may they also be in us.

Previously, He has informed His disciples that He is going away. He's going away and they're disturbed by this and He says to them, well, don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, you believe in the Father, believe also in Me. And then He goes on to tell them that He is preparing for them and so on. Well, John, of course, had actually begun his gospel in his prologue with that very thought in mind.

You remember we read it at Christmas time and at other times too, John 1:14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. Quite literally what he says there is that the word pitched His tent among us. And what he's doing is he's purposefully picking up a picture that many of the readers of the gospel would immediately identify with, namely that God back in the Old Testament in Exodus 25 had given instruction to His servants that they would make a sanctuary for Him, that He says, "Let them make a sanctuary for Me that I may dwell in their midst, that I may dwell with them, among them, in them," right?

So the tabernacle is created, the Ark of the Covenant moves as the people of God move, and there you have the symbolic presence of God. This is where God identifies Himself in His presence amongst His people. And it is that very picture that is then picked up and fulfilled in Jesus. No longer in a tabernacle, no longer in a tent, no longer in a temple. His temple which He is building, His people in 1 Corinthians 3, the individual in 1 Corinthians 6, is the dwelling place of God. That's where God is met. So we don't look to meet Him in a temple in Jerusalem or in a tabernacle in the wilderness, but in the person of His only beloved Son.

And quite wonderfully in that passage to which I referred in John chapter 14, Jesus says to His disciples, "If you love Me, you'll keep My commandments and I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you." And then He says to them, "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in Me and I in you."

That's close. That I am in my Father and you are in Me and I am in you. That's presence. Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep my word and My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him."

That's presence. That's the promise of Christ, that the life of genuine believing faith is a life that is gathered up in the God and Father who is over all, who is working through all, and who is in all. So cast your mind around the room, cast your mind around the world, think about all the people you know and the people that you've never met that you know are in Christ tonight.

And here is the amazing, radical dimension of it all. That's why Jesus says it's better for you that I go away because when I am here physically present, I can only be in one place at one time. But when I go, I will send to you another helper. You know Him, He's with you, He's going to be in you. And if a man loves Me, he'll keep my word.

And here is this amazing promise. I have one or two friends who don't like a lot of my songs that I quote, and one of the songs they don't think I ever should quote is because they said it's schmaltzy and it's sentimental. Well, that's their opinion, but I still like it. "I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses and the sound I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me that I am His own." What's wrong with this? Isn't this the promise?

Some of us live alone, some of us are sad, some of us are disappointed, some of us have only bad memories of an earthly father. Now we have a Heavenly Father who knows our name, who knows each tear that falls, who hears us when we call, and He doesn't just listen from a distance, He has promised to be in and with us. You see what a radical, wonderful thing that is? So that Christ is present when I lie down in my bed, when I rise up in the morning, present to my left and to my right. Present. And what Paul has been able to say to the Ephesians comes through to us, that throughout the world the church that God has created He sustains and He pervades. And the one who does so is over all and through all and in all.

Bob Lepine: You're listening to Truth For Life with Alistair Begg. He'll return in just a minute to close today's program. Today's message wraps up our study in the book of Ephesians. If you've enjoyed this brief study from chapter four, you can listen to Alistair teach through all six chapters of Ephesians. The complete series is available on a USB for just five dollars. You'll find it in our online store at truthforlife.org/store.

We've been learning from Paul's instruction to the church in Ephesus that those who are in Christ are to put off the old self and put on the new self. So how do we do that? Well, that's at the heart of a book we're recommending to you today, a book titled "A Heart Aflame for God." This book lays out the spiritual disciplines necessary to fully experience the kind of transformation Paul is describing. These routines include familiar practices like prayer and meditation, reading the Bible, but you'll also learn about often overlooked habits like connecting to the natural world God created, regularly assessing your battle against sin, and reflecting on God's providence in your life.

You can enjoy a deeper faith marked by affection for God as you read through "A Heart Aflame for God." Ask for your copy when you donate to Truth For Life today. You can give online at truthforlife.org/donate or call us at 888-588-7884. Now here's Alistair to close with prayer.

Alistair Begg: Father, thank You. Thank You, God, for sending Jesus. Thank You, Jesus, that You came. Holy Spirit, won't You tell us more about His lovely name. Open our eyes, Lord, enlighten us in order that we might see the hope to which You've called us, that we might be made aware of the mighty working whereby You work.

As we think about all of the proud boasts of civilizations throughout history, as we think about the movements of governments and thrones and kingdoms, as we think about the uprising of those who defy Your truth, who are disinterested in Your word, Lord, we pray that You will help us humbly and purposefully to bow down under the instruction of Your word and to be helped again this day and in this week that lies ahead by reminding ourselves that there is one God and Father of all who is over all, through all, and in all. And in Christ's name we pray, amen.

Bob Lepine: I'm Bob Lepine, thanks for listening today. Tomorrow we'll begin a study looking at what the Bible has to say about the Sabbath. Is this day of rest a gift from God or something that gets in the way of your busy calendar? The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth For Life, where the learning is for living.