Ephesians 4:3-6; One Father, part 4 – He is sovereign, not self.

Class Outline:

Thursday June 10, 2021

 

Bible Project video: God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAvYmE2YYIU

 

1CO 8:5-6

For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

 

We have life through Christ for the Father.

 

The gods of the world, “so-called” says Paul for they are not God. They are created by demon motivated man and contain human characteristics. There are also many lords, human authorities who have given their lives to the false gods and the satanic world system for the hope of wealth and power. They have a worldly power over us but no power over us, for we live for the Father through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

All believers are foreknown and predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. That means that all believers will be so. Christ lived for the Father. He submitted to the Father’s every desire and command. As is Christ, so must we be. We live through Christ and we live for the Father. Still, Christ is our Head and our Master and we are under His authority as well as the authority of the Father.

 

The truth about the absolute authority of the Father and the fact that it obligates all His creatures to obedience is groundbreaking for us. It is so because all of us are born in Adam and we have enthroned ourselves in the place of God. All have set Self on the throne of his life. No matter what we do, even that which looks to be for the welfare and benefit of others, we do, in essence, for ourselves. Life cannot be lived until Self is dethroned by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Almighty becoming a Man and dying for you is the only truth that will remove Self and see God who has never given His throne to anyone.

 

We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is.

 

For this reason, the self-existence of God, His eternity; that He is the originator of all things, is not a dry doctrine to be put on some back shelf in our souls, but practical to our very understanding of ourselves.

 

[Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy] “Man is a created being, a derived and contingent self, who of himself possesses nothing, but is dependent each moment for his existence upon the One who created him after His own likeness.

 

That God is everything and man is nothing is a basic tenet of Christian faith and devotion. Man for all his genius is but an echo of the original voice of God, a reflection of God’s uncreated light. As a sunbeam perishes when cut off from the sun, so man apart from God would pass back into the void of nothingness from which God first called him. As in John’s opening to his Gospel, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Paul writes in Colossians, “For by Him all things were created … all things were created by Him and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” The writer of Hebrews, “He upholds all things by the word of His power.”

 

The natural man is a sinner because he challenges God’s selfhood, authority, and sovereignty. In things outside himself, man has accepted the sovereignty of God, as for instance the creation of the universe and the physical laws that govern it. But over himself, man never accepts the sovereignty of God unless he is set free through faith in the gospel. All the fallen human race has rejected God’s authority over their own lives.

 

Yet so subtle is self that scarcely anyone is conscious of its presence. Because man is born a rebel, he is unaware that he is one. His constant assertion of self, as far as he thinks of it at all, appears to him a perfectly normal thing. He is willing to share himself, sometimes even to sacrifice himself for a desired end, but never to dethrone himself. No matter how far down the scale of social acceptance he may slide, he is still in his own eyes a king on a throne, and no one, not even God, can take that throne from him.

 

Sin has many manifestations but its essence is one. A moral being, created to worship before the throne of God, sits on the throne of his own selfhood and from that elevated position declares, “I am.” That is sin in its concentrated essence; yet because it is natural it appears to be good. It is only when in the gospel the soul is brought before the face of the Most Holy One without the protective shield of ignorance that the frightful moral incongruity is brought home to the conscience.” [A.W. Tozer]

 

The Father gives to His sons and daughters.

 

MAT 6:31-34

“Do not be anxious then, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'With what shall we clothe ourselves?' 32 For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

 

Your Father promises to supply your every need. He asks us to seek not after needs, nor be anxious about them, but to seek after His kingdom and His righteousness.

 

MAT 7:11

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

 

As sons and daughters we are to openly, and intelligently, ask the Father for what is good. We will at times, in ignorance, misinterpret what is good and ask for what would not be good for ourselves or others, but God knows what we are seeking and will give what is good while He continues to teach us to understand what is good.

 

The believer is unlike the world in many ways, one of which is that he does not seek after the same things as they.

 

LUK 12:29-32

“And do not seek what you shall eat, and what you shall drink, and do not keep worrying. 30 For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. 31 But seek for His kingdom, and these things shall be added to you. 32 Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”