If you'll turn to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. Preaching a series about God. The attributes of God. And we're going to be talking about the greatness of God this morning. And some of the attributes that relate to His greatness. If you'll follow along as I read some scriptures out of the Gospel of John. John chapter 1 verse 1. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse 3. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Chapter 5, verse 26. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. Chapter 10, verse 28. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father who is greater My Father has given them to Me and is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. Let us pray. Father, I pray that You will enable me by the power of Your Holy Spirit to proclaim Your greatness this morning. And I pray, Lord, that You will help us to have a greater grasp of Your greatness and what that means to each and every one of us, Lord. And we pray and ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. The prophet Isaiah asked, to whom shall we liken God? The fact is, He is like no one else. He is incomparable to anyone. For He is such a great, great God. The Bible proclaims His greatness. In Psalm 48 verse 1 it says, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. In that passage in John that I read to you, Jesus proclaimed the greatness of His Father. He said, My Father is greater than all. He is the greatest of all. How great is God? Well, I believe we have a picture of His greatness as expressed in the book of Exodus. When God says, you cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live. No man in human flesh can stand in the presence of God and behold the fullness of His glory and survive. He is that great. It's kind of like no man with a naked eye, unfiltered, can look directly into the sun for very long before he goes blind. God is absolute greatness. And when He came down and manifested His presence on Mount Sinai before the nation of Israel, notice what it says. There were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and the sound of the trumpet was very loud. Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly at the presence of our great God. No wonder it says in the verses in between that the people trembled at His presence. God is indeed a great God. Furthermore, Psalm 104 verse 1 says, ìO Lord my God, You are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty.î You realize our English word ìmajestyî is based on a Latin word that means ìgreatî. God is indeed clothed with majesty, for He is very great indeed. And since Jesus Christ is the Son of the great God, then we would expect Him to be great. We would expect Him to have majesty. And indeed, the Apostle Peter bore witness that we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. as He was transfigured before them on the mountain. They got a glimpse of the majesty of Jesus Christ. When the angel gave prophecy of the birth of Jesus, the angel said, He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest. Yes, God is great. His Son, Jesus, is great. And we need to understand the absolute greatness of God this morning. A book was written some time back called, Your God is Too Small. And I believe it conveys the idea that we act like God is not nearly as great as He truly is. that our faith is not as strong as it really ought to be if we realized how great God is. And I believe when we do not understand the absolute greatness of God, our faith will be smaller and our worship will not be as reverent as it ought to be. I have a great task this morning to preach the greatness of God. No words of human eloquence are adequate to express the greatness of God. And even the human mind is not adequate to fully comprehend the greatness of God. But yet we are going to attempt to share with you this morning what the Bible says about the greatness of God. Now what I want to do this morning is talk about the greatness of God in terms of some of the attributes of God. In fact, the next two or three messages will deal with some of the attributes of God which magnify His greatness. And so let's look at the first that I will share with you this morning. And that is this, that God is self-existent. Self-existent. When a child asks his mother, who made God? We have to ask, well what's the answer? Who made God? Well the fact is, no one made God. Because God is self-existent. He has always been in existence. And He always will be in existence. He's the one that created all, but He Himself was created by no one. The human mind can hardly understand. that which has never been created but is self-existent because everything we know has been created. Everything we know is derived from something else and that something or someone truly is God. He is the great self-existent One. And I believe the Bible conveys this in several places of the Word of God. When Moses asked God, what shall I tell them is your name? God said in Exodus 3.14, I am that I am. In the Hebrew, it is based on a verb of being. And it can sometimes be translated exist. I exist that I exist. God is the self-existent One. It's in the unperfect tense which conveys continuous action. And so God has always been and always will be as the self-existent One. He is the ever-present Great I am. And then in John chapter 1 and verses 1 and 3 it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. God was made by no one, instead He made everything. And nothing exists that was not made by God. He created all things. And likewise, Colossians chapter 1 and verse 16 says, For by Him all things were created that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, all things were created through Him and for Him. Even things we cannot see, spirit beings which we cannot see, God created all things, but He Himself was created by no one. And let me help you understand how that reality is the absolute truth. I want you to imagine, put your thinking cap on, and I want you to imagine a time way back when, before the universe came into existence. Imagine a time when absolutely nothing existed. Not even God existed, if you can imagine that. Now please explain to me how, out of absolute nothingness, all of a sudden this world came into being. How did the universe come into being out of absolute nothing? Listen, it takes a whole lot more faith to believe that there is no God than to believe that all this came out of nothingness. The fact is, God is the self-existent One who has always been. And what is most amazing about the creation of God is not the creation of the earth, the water, the mountains, the rocks, and so forth. But what is most amazing is life. The creation of life. Yes, God is the One who created life. John 6.26 says, For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. This relates to the self-existence of God. Now you and I have life, but it was given to us. It is derived. immediately from our parents and ultimately from God. But life comes from God. Only God has life within Himself as the self-existent One. Likewise, John 1.4 says, "...in Him Jesus was life." He is the Son of God, so like His Father, has life within Himself. And so God is the one who is self-existent, who has always been, who created all things, who created us. Now the problem comes when man forgets that he is a creation of God and asserts his independence from God. When we disobey God, when we don't put Him on the throne of our lives, when we don't recognize that we come from God, that our life's breath comes from God, we are absolutely dependent upon God. Folks, God is all in all and we come from Him and we should never dethrone Him from our lives, but always enthrone Him as the Lord of our lives. Jesus said in Matthew 16, 24, If anyone comes after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. A cross is an instrument of death and execution. We have to come to the place in our lives where we dethrone self and put Jesus on the throne of our lives. Is God, is His Son Jesus on the throne of your life? He is the Great Self-Existence One. We're the ones that derive life from Him. He derives it from no one else. But secondly, God is great because God is self-sufficient. He is the living God. And He is dependent on no one, but all are dependent upon Him. I believe the Apostle Paul expressed this in Acts 17, 25. Nor is He worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives life to all men. Life to all. life and breath and all things. Paul says, God doesn't need us. We're the ones that need Him. He is absolutely self-sufficient. We're the ones that are not self-sufficient. The Apostle Paul asks in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 7, What do you have that you did not first receive? Absolutely nothing. Everything we have ultimately comes from God and comes from others. We are not self-sufficient. We cannot live independently of things outside of ourselves. We need food to eat. We need water to drink. We need air to breathe. Folks, we need God. We need the life that He grants us. We. are dependent upon the self-sufficient God. Imagine for a moment that all of humanity became blind. Well, even though all humanity, imagine, became blind and could not see the sun any longer, the sun would nevertheless continue to shine. And even so, If all men were to become atheists and say there is no God, that would not mean that God does not exist. That does not mean that God would somehow be unable to be happy and needs us. No, He doesn't need us. We're the one that needs Him. And we must always remember that. We are absolutely dependent upon God. I believe Jesus taught us this in His model prayer. When He said, taught us to pray, give us this day our daily bread. You need food to live. And we are to express our dependence on God by praying every day, give us this day our daily bread. You know, how many of us do that anymore? You know, do we really feel like we need God when we've got a refrigerator and freezer full of food and a pantry full of food? And while some folks have a month's supply of food stored away that somebody sold you, you know. Do we need God? Yes, we do. And we need to always recognize that we need God. And the good thing is that we needy creatures can have a relationship with a God who is self-sufficient and who can supply our every need. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3-5, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. If you need wisdom, ask Him. He can give you wisdom. If you need food, ask Him. He can give you food. If you need understanding, ask Him. He can give you understanding. If you need strength, ask Him. He can give you the strength that you need. God is the source of all things. He is self-existent, self-sufficient. And furthermore, the Bible teaches that God is infinite. Now how in the world can the human mind, which deals with finite things continually, understand a God who is absolutely infinite, without measure, limitless? Infinite cannot be used of any Creation of God, that term belongs only to God Himself. Now I will deal with some specifics of God's infinity. For example, He is all-powerful. He is all-knowing. He is everywhere present. We'll talk about that in the next message. But today I want to deal with the general concept of God's infinity and a few illustrations of that from the Word of God. Now when we talk about God is infinite, that means that He has no bounds. There is no measure to God. He is absolutely infinite. Being infinite, there can be no growth, there can be no development, there can be no evolution with God. He is absolutely already infinite. And the Bible talks about the infinity of God in Psalm 147 verse 5. Great is our Lord and mighty in power. He's omnipotent. His understanding is infinite. We serve an infinite God. And I believe we can get a picture of the infinity of God as we consider outer space. The Milky Way galaxy has untold numbers of stars in it. Do you realize that our Milky Way galaxy is so large that it takes light 100,000 light years to travel across the Milky Way galaxy? 186,000 miles per second. That's how big the Milky Way galaxy is. And you realize that scientists believe that there are 100 billion other galaxies in the known universe. Do you realize that the next nearest galaxy is 1,500,000 light years away? Folks, that is big. That is big. And God created it all. Go as far as light can travel. And you still haven't reached the extremity of what God has created. Yes. And what does the infinity of God mean to us? You know, we creatures are frustrated by our limitations. We get tired. We get hungry. We get sick. And we're limited by the length of our lives. The longer we live, the more we realize how short life is. And yet, the good news is that we can have a relationship with God who is limitless, who is eternal. And we can live forever. Furthermore, we are sinners. And some people have sinned a lot. But there's still a limit to how much people have sinned. But the good news is that Romans chapter 5 and verse 20 says, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Folks, you cannot exhaust the mercy and grace of God, for His mercy and grace is infinite. We serve an infinite God. Likewise, God's love is infinite. I can only love so many people. And I hope you're in that list, you know. But, you know, you can only love, I mean, you can't, you know, these people that have 26 grandchildren I don't know how they can remember all their names much less by presence and shower all of them with love But God's love is infinite Seven billion people and he loves all of them greatly We serve an infinite God. And listen, He's unlimited in His power. We need to remember that when we pray. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20 says, Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. That's the God that we serve. Our God is infinite. And one aspect of His infinity is the fact that God is eternal. And the Bible expresses the eternality of God. In Psalm 90 verse 2 it says, Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Can you even imagine looking back into eternity on a straight line and it just never ends? No matter how far in the past you go, God is there. No matter how far in the future you could go, God is there. From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. In Psalm chapter 102 verses 25 and 26, it says, ìOf old you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure.î God is Eternal. He is called the Ancient of Days. In Revelation chapter 4 and verse 8, the four living creatures around the throne of God keep saying over and over, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. Our God is the eternal God. He has no beginning, He has no end. He is the eternal God. Now folks, this relates to the subject of time. We are creatures of time. All that are a part of His creation are part of time. When He created the world, time began for this world. And the Bible says the world as we know it is going to come to an end someday. There's a beginning and there's an end, but God is above time. God enters into time, but He's really above it. He supersedes time. He's above and beyond it. That is why God could say in Isaiah 46, verses 9 and 10, I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning. You see, God is over time. That's why He can declare the end from the beginning. He is the ever-present One. He is the self-existent One. And of course, the fact that God is eternal means wonderful truths for us. If we have a relationship with the eternal God, then we can share in His eternal life. In 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and verse 10 says, Jesus Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. Paulie Toll was a strong believer in Jesus Christ. But yet when he breathed his last, he knew that would not be the end of his life, but that he would live forever and ever. And that's true of every believer. Let us rejoice that we can have a relationship, mortal as we are, with a God who is eternal and who grants unto us eternal life. Yes, the Bible declares that God is great. For the Lord is great, the great God, and the great King above all gods. And considering the absolute greatness of God, how should we respond to this great God? Well, the psalmist went on to say, O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. The psalmist also said, great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. Yes, when we gather to worship, we gather to worship a great God. And we should give Him great worship, wholehearted worship. We should praise His name. Let us respond to His greatness. with great worship. But also the fact that God is great means that God is worthy of great faith. Let us have great faith in Him. Let us pray to a great God. God is great. Let us understand how that impacts our lives today. Would you bow with me in prayer? Father, we extol Your greatness. We thank You, Father, that You are indeed the God who is self-existent, self-sufficient. Lord, we thank You that You are infinite, that You are eternal. Lord, help us to grasp Your greatness in some measure this morning, that we may understand that we can share in Your strength. We can share in Your life. We can share in Your infinite wisdom. That we are created in the image of God and we can do great things through You. And Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here who has yet to enter into a relationship with You, that today will be the day when they do so by faith in Jesus Christ. And I pray and ask this in Jesus' name, amen.