Hey everybody, Pastor Mark here coming at you again from the COVID-19 emergency bunker, bunker deep under the earth. Not really, it's in the church basement, but I like to pretend. I really wish we could be together in worship, but again, until we can't, I hope these videos on the greatness of God, the doctrine of God, really encourage you and help us to focus on some very important things that we need to focus on. We started this series in Sunday school, and so I'm really just continuing the Sunday School series with these videos, and if the quarantine ends soon, which we hope it does, then we'll just keep going with this series during Sunday School. Now, it's based, as I've announced before, but I want to give credit again, it's based on the book by Matthew Barrett called None Greater, and I really encourage everyone to to grab a copy of this and read it. It's very readable. It's very accessible and very encouraging. And my lessons are really talking through mostly the main points found in Dr. Barrett's book. Now today, we're going to be talking about the fact that God is never in need. God is never in need. God always has all that he needs in himself. In other words, God doesn't depend on anything outside of himself. He doesn't need you. He doesn't need me. He has all that he needs from himself. He is never in need of us or anything beyond him. He's completely, utterly, wonderfully self-sufficient. Now, This is a great thing for us to think about, very important for us to think about during this time where our need is so exposed and so apparent and obvious. We're going through a situation where our human weakness, our limitations as creatures is on full display. We're being reminded right now during this time of how much we need other people. of how much we need experts, of how we depend upon those around us. And particularly, as a human race, we're being reminded right now of how utterly dependent we are upon God and His sovereign goodness to us. Because a little tiny, microscopic organism that we can't even see can just sweep through and destroy us. That's how weak, that's how needy we are. So in this time, it's a great time for us to think about the fact that God is so opposite and different from us and we can receive great comfort from that fact. Think about it this way. If a doctor comes on television, and I think recently doctors have come on television and said this very thing, they come on television and they say, hey, we as doctors, as medical professionals, as the first line caregivers in this coronavirus crisis, we need you. We as the experts, we as the professional medical givers, we need all of you, the public, you healthy people, you young people, you strong people, we need you to help us battle the spread of this virus. If we hear something like that, that's gonna encourage us to action. In fact, it's gonna be inspiring in some way. We're gonna respond to that, that expression of need by the doctors, and we're gonna say, yeah, I wanna contribute, I wanna participate, I'm happy to help out, and I'm glad I can be a meaningful part of this. I'm glad in some ways that the doctors are telling us of their needs so that we can come together and help out. but how different the situation would be if we weren't healthy. If we are in a hospital laying flat on our backs and we're suffering from the full ravages of the COVID-19 disease, hooked up to a ventilator, so weak that we can't even lift our own arm. If we're in that situation, if we're in that kind of need and a doctor comes in, And he says to us, uh, I, as your doctor have to tell you, I need you. I'm in need of you. I need you to give yourself the medicine. I need you to give yourself your, your, your own shots. I need you to change your own bedpan. I can't. help you all by myself. I need you. That would be a devastating thing to hear. It would be devastating because we're in such need ourselves. And when we're in that kind of deep need, we need someone to help us who doesn't in turn need us because we don't have anything to give. We're not able to help ourselves. So when we're helpless, We need the help of someone who doesn't need our help. When we're helpless, we need the help of someone who doesn't need our help. And that's God. God never needs our help. And as we are realizing our helplessness, what a wonderful thing it is to grab on to that great truth. God helps us despite the fact that we don't provide anything. God helps us and he helps us without needing us to participate in the solution, to participate in our salvation. Now, I've jumped right into a brief explanation of a doctrine and even jumped into its implications, the importance for us, the comfort it brings us in thinking about it and believing it. But let me back up now. Let's back up. Let me be careful to define this attribute of God, this characteristic of God that I've been talking about. Define it carefully. We're going to take some time to prove it from scripture. And then finally, let's think even more about the implications, the comforting implications of this doctrine. We already began to. We're going to continue to do that. So let's, let me first define this doctrine a little more fully than I already have. Again, it has to do with the fact that God never needs. anything outside of himself. God is never in need. Now, theologians have historically referred to this as God's aseity. God's aseity. That's not a word we use very often. And, boys and girls, if I asked you to spell aseity, you'd probably get it wrong. Because, in fact, if I asked your parents to spell aseity, they'd probably get it wrong. In fact, I'm gonna spell it right now, but I actually have to look down at my notes just to make sure I'm getting it right. Aseity. A-S-E-I-T-Y. Aseity. Now, it's a strange word, a new word for many of us, but again, it basically means two things, two things of wonderful importance. Firstly, it means, as I've said, God does not need anyone or anything outside of himself. God does not need anyone or anything outside of himself, but rather, and this is a second important thing it refers to, God is the source of all life. He, in other words, doesn't need to receive from anything outside of himself. He is not a taker. He is not a receiver. But rather, he is the giver of all life and good things. So, two parts to this important doctrine. God is not a taker. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need us to give to him. God is not a taker. Rather, the second part, God is the giver. All of life, all of goodness, every good and perfect gift comes from him. So he doesn't receive, but rather he gives. He gives, he gives, he gives. Matthew Barrett, in our book, talks about it this way. He says, God is the fullness of life in and of himself. He doesn't need us, rather he gives life to us. Herman Bavink, a wonderful and fantastic theologian. He happened to be Dutch. He's not a great theologian because he was Dutch. He just is Dutch and a great theologian. He talks about it this way. He says, all that God is, he is of himself. That means God is independent, utterly, completely, fully independent, not dependent upon us. But we are the opposite, aren't we? God is fully, always, eternally independent. We are always utterly in need of God. We are dependent on God for every breath that we take. But God, in contrast, is the source. of every breath that we take. So when you think of, when you hear the word aseity, just think of the fact God does not take anything from us, does not need us in any way, but rather he is the source of all life and goodness. So let me test you just to make sure we've got this concept down. Did God create us because he was lacking something before we existed? Okay, it's a little test question, see if you're understanding this concept. Did God create us because he was lacking something before we existed? You know, some people might imagine God as kind of floating around in space all by himself and he got kind of bored and he got kind of lonely and he said, ah, I need a project. I'm going to create, I'm gonna make, stuff and uh so he set to work and he rolled up the earth and he formed the earth and then he you know we all know how he made snakes put those all in place and then worked on humans and he just took delight and joy in doing this because it finally relieved him of his isolation and his boredom. We can think of that like we add something to God that when we came along, we like contributed to God's well-being or happiness. Is that the case? It's not. Not in any way. God was fully happy, is fully happy in and of Himself. When we came along, when He created us, we did not add anything to God or His well-being. And this shouldn't be too hard for us to understand if we think, for example, of the Trinity. we realize, oh, God had all the friendship he needed, all the fellowship he needed, all the love he needed, all the community that he needed in and of himself. with the three persons of the Trinity, loving one another and being in constant communion and fellowship with each other, enjoying each other from all eternity, not needing a community beyond themselves. So as Jesus himself said in John 17, he says, Glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. God existed in glory in himself, in a glorious relationship, a relationship of glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He created us, but he didn't do it because he needed us. He created us to simply express His abundant fullness. Now you say, wait a minute though. I guess that, you know, that makes sense. But isn't it the case that we give things to God? I mean, the Bible talks about that, doesn't it? It talks about us giving praise to God. talks about us giving sacrifices to God, right? There's a lot of that in the Old Testament. So don't we give things to God? Well, yes, but we have to be very careful as to how we understand that and what we mean by that. When we give to God, glad this isn't just an audio recording because now I can do air quotes. When we give to God, when we give Him glory, for example, we are announcing God's glory. We are not adding to God's glory. We are announcing God's glory. We are recognizing God's glory. We are revealing God's glory, but we are not creating God's glory. We are not the ones that produce glory to God and thereby, by our praise to God, finally, he gets the credit that he's been longing for. Finally, It makes him greater. No, he is eternally perfect. The infinitely perfect one, as we talked about in our last lesson. But he invites us into a relationship where we get to enjoy him and glorify him, meaning we don't add to his glory, but it is revealed by us. It is confessed by us. Not ever. created by us. We see God for who he is in and of himself and his glorious perfections, and we announce that. So, we don't really give glory to God in the sense of him being in need, and if we don't give it, he wouldn't have it. It's kind of like when the five-year-old gives her dad some socks for his birthday. Now, no offense, five-year-olds. Five-year-olds, when you give us things as our sons or daughters, we love it. It is such a great thing for us. But it's not as if the dad just wouldn't have socks if it weren't for the five-year-old's contribution. Because after all, where did the five-year-old get the money in the first place to buy the socks, right? Got it from mom or dad. unless your five-year-old has some hustle on the side at preschool, selling jelly beans under the slide and making bank. But normally speaking, that's the way it is. All that we give to God It's just the result of what we've received from Him and just a recognition of the goodness, the greatness, the perfection that He has in and of Himself apart from us giving Him anything. So, God is never in need. He never needs to receive. Rather, He is the source and giver of all good things. He's not a receiver. He's not a taker. He's the giver of life and love and goodness. Now let me take a few minutes to prove this from Scripture. This, of course, is our standard. We don't want to think anything about God that's just the result of our own imaginations. That would be an idol. That would be an awful God if it was just created by our own minds and our own reasoning. So all of this has to be based on Scripture, but it's not too difficult to see that this is exactly what Scripture teaches us, something very fundamental about God that Scripture teaches us. So, let's prove it from Scripture and then think some more about the implications. Just think about creation. Think about the very opening words of the Bible and you'll begin to realize, oh, this is teaching us God's aseity, God's independence, the fact that He doesn't need us but He gives all things to us. Genesis 1-1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now think about that a minute. In the beginning, there was God and what else? Nothing else. In the beginning, there is God and nothing else. And this proves God's independence. Doesn't it? Because God didn't need anything else to be Himself. In the beginning, He was God. Before He created, in other words, He was still fully, completely, utterly Himself. He didn't need anything else to be Himself. But rather, He brought all of creation into being. And He brought all of creation into being From what? He brought all of creation into being from what? From little spare parts that he found flying around? Like we talked about earlier, did he make snakes by rolling them up? And then, ooh, there, I've created snakes. No, God created all things from what? From nothing. Or we could say from the fullness of his creative power. He brought everything into being from nothing. He didn't need already existing materials. He didn't need tools. He himself is the source of all life. So right there in the beginning, God created and we have this doctrine presented to us. He didn't need anything outside of himself to be himself. And all that is comes from Him, from His fullness of being. Now, Genesis 1-1, first words of the Bible. We also go to another very important passage in the Bible, Exodus chapter 3, where God is revealing Himself to Moses in the burning bush. And he reveals himself to Moses in the burning bush by announcing to Moses that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he's come to bring his people up out of Egypt, up out of their slavery. And you remember what Moses asked of him. As God is announcing this to Moses, Moses says, okay, but when I go to the people to tell them that you're going to be rescuing them, they're going to ask me what your name is. In other words, they're going to want to know what you're like, what identifies you, what is, you might say, so special about you that you're actually gonna pull this off. What am I to tell them? What name am I to tell them that you identify yourself by? And do you remember what God says? He says, you're to tell the people of Israel that I am who I am. That is my name. I am who I am. And so that's why we refer to God very often with his personal name, Yahweh, Yahweh, because that is Hebrew for I am, Hebrew for I am. Now think about how this name, how God identify himself like this, I am who I am, expresses his self-sufficiency, his independence, his lack of need of anything outside of himself, right? I am who I am. We can think about what that means by contrasting it with some other options. He is not, in other words, who others say that he is. He says, I am who I am to make it clear that he is not what others say he is. He is not identified, in other words, as I am who you think I am. I am who you say that I am. I am who others decide I am, or I am what you want me to be. No, he says I am who I am in contrast to I am who I will become after I do certain things. See, that's That's what we're like. We're not finished yet developing. We're not finished yet. Are you kids growing? Well, adults either in different ways. You're not finished becoming who you will one day be. You are not what you will one day be. But God never said, doesn't identify himself as, I am not what I one day will be. I am this day this thing and will be that day this other thing. No, he says, here's who I am eternally. I am who I am. I am who I am. I'm never what others think I am, or I am not what others just define me as. I'm not in the process of becoming. I'm not whatever I'll turn out to be after I accomplish certain things. I am who I am, period. The great theologian, Gehardus Vos, put it this way. Thus taken, the name Yahweh signifies, oh, by the way, Vos, was another Dutch theologian and a great theologian, but he was a great theologian not because he was Dutch. He just happened to be Dutch and happened to be a theologian. Just making that clear. But Vos says this, thus taken, the name Yahweh signifies primarily that in all God does for his people, he is from within determined. He is from within determined, not moved upon by outside influences. I am who I am, not I am what you will make me to be by your actions or what I will become by doing things. No, I am who I am. Okay, now let me prove it from also the New Testament and really quick, Paul, when he is preaching to to people who don't have the Old Testament or didn't believe the Old Testament when he's preaching, not to Jewish people in the book of Acts, but he's preaching to Gentiles. He says this, the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. Let me read that again. The God who made the world and everything in it being the Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." There it is. He doesn't need anything. He gives to us everything. So, we see not only that it's taught in Scripture, but that this idea of God's independence and self-sufficiency, His aseity, is fundamental to the Bible's revelation of God. Now, let's think about the implications of this. We already started thinking about the implications of this right at the beginning, the comfort that it can bring, but let's do it again because we need this great comfort. It's a comfort in this time when our need is so clear to remember this wonderful fact, the fact that God needs nothing. And it's a comfort because it means he can give us all things. We can be weak. We can be helpless and it's okay. Why? Because our God is not helpless. Just the opposite. He is utterly without need. So no matter how deep and great our need is, He can provide for our need. Remember that. No matter how great and deep our need is. Because our God is without need. but himself the fullness of life and giver of all good things. He's always able to help us in our need. Now, this is true not only with regard to our physical needs, like as we face down things like coronavirus, but it's also the case with regard to our spiritual need in light of our sin. In other words, God's lack of need is at the heart of the gospel. God's lack of need is at the heart of the gospel. Think of it this way. In the gospel, God doesn't need anything from us or take anything from us. He's the source of our salvation from start to finish. See, the gospel can announce this good news to us, it can announce the fact that God is not taking anything from us in order to save us, but he is rather the one providing our full salvation from start to finish without us contributing at all. That can be the case because he's a God that doesn't have need. He can enter into that kind of wonderful relationship with us because he is a God without need. So this is expressed in the Old Testament in a beautiful fashion when God promises salvation to Abraham and he assures Abraham that he's going to be the one to fully pull off salvation, that it's going to be by his work And not by the contribution of Abraham. He doesn't need Abraham to give him something for God to fulfill all his promises to him. No, he's going to take care of it. This is revealed wonderfully in this ritual. that takes place in Genesis chapter 15. And I'd encourage you as individuals or as families, read this later together. Genesis 15, and you'll read about a ritual that takes place where Abraham cuts these animals in half and he puts one half of an animal over here and the other half over here. Sounds strange to us, doesn't it? But this was a common way to come into an agreement, a covenant, in the ancient world. And what typically would happen is you'd cut the pieces of the animals in half and parties of the covenant would walk through it. and basically say, I'm going to fulfill my responsibility in this relationship, in this covenant. And if I don't, I'm going to be like these animals cut in half. So it was a way to really promise, you know, cross your heart, hope to die, stick a needle in your eye kind of promise, a way to really promise you were going to do your part in the relationship. But when God did entered into fellowship with Abraham, God had Abraham cut the animals in two. But then, instead of Abraham walking through the pieces of the animals and promising to do his part in the relationship, God and God alone is the one who moved through the animals. In other words, he said, Abram, I don't need you. This is not about your contribution. The gospel is about me giving you a full salvation. all from me and my work. As we read in Ephesians chapter 1, in Jesus we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. See, out of the fullness of Jesus and the fullness of what God has done for us in Jesus, He gives to us a free salvation. He gives to those who not only don't have anything to give to Him, but to those who have only taken, to those who have sinned like you and me. He gives to us from the fullness of His grace. In closing, think about this with me. We need to live before God, not as givers, but as takers. Not as givers, but as takers. Now, it's easy for us to forget this in the Christian life, because it's true that God calls on us to glorify Him, to obey Him, to love Him and to love others, to be givers to those around us. But our relationship with God should not have the posture of us being the ones who need to give to maintain and sustain and make the relationship good. No, rather, our relationship with God is based on the fact that we, the hopeless and the helpless, are takers from Him. He is the great giver, the perfect giver, and we are to have a posture of receiving from Him. That's what faith is all about, and that's what's actually going to lead us to glorify Him, to give glory to Him. I shouldn't have said, quote-unquote, glorify Him, but you know what I mean. To give, quote-unquote, glory to Him. We give glory to God only when we are receiving salvation and goodness from Him. When we recognize our great need and we recognize His great gifts and we take hold of those. and have the posture of being takers, receivers, then our lives begin to overflow to the glory of God and the good of those around us. So, let's think over the next few days, over the next weeks, let's have the posture of being takers from God, not from each other, but from God, to look to him as the great giver that he is, the perfectly self-sufficient one and the fullness of life who gives all life and good things to his creation. And let's recognize that this giving God has saved us in Jesus Christ with a full and free salvation. So we need to be takers. We need to be receivers. And then let's pray that having that posture before God, we would then begin more and more to both give Him glory and to give love to those around us. Be well. I hope we get to see each other again soon. Bye-bye.