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Well, we're reading from Acts
chapter 17, here are the word of God. God, who made the world and everything
in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in
temples made with hands, nor is he worshipped with men's hands
as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath,
and all things. Father, as we come to continue
to worship you in response to your word, we thank you that
it's not because of any need in you. but it's because you've
drawn our hearts out in love. And I pray that you would anoint
my lips, that you would enable my speech to be pleasing in your
sight, and that you would accompany the scriptures that I am preaching
to the hearts of this, your people. I pray the same for Michael Elliott
and for Gary as they're preaching out of town. And Father, for
pulpits all across this nation and this world, that your word
would triumph in the lives of your people. Draw us into your
heart, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Now I'm curious, how many here
have even heard of the aseity of God before it was announced
that, yeah, I didn't think there would be too many people that
would do that. Now if I was really brave, I
could ask, how many people are excited to be hearing about God's
aseity? Okay, there are probably a few
more than you might get in some churches. And when we talk about
aseity with some Christians, their eyes kind of glaze over,
and I suspect it's because most systematic theologies, when they
deal with the aseity of God, don't show the practical implications
of it. None of my theology books, with
the exception of John Frame's, are very practical other than
showing some philosophical ramifications and in very complicated terms. Well, I promise you this morning
you will see that this doctrine is no exception to my belief
that all doctrine is exceedingly practical and useful. And it's
got more use than impressing your friends with the fact that
you know what a Saiyete means after today. Dr. Gordon Clark said that this doctrine
is probably the most foundational doctrine in understanding God.
And I agree with that. And so let's define the doctrine.
Let's see if it's biblical before we begin to apply it. Roman numeral
I, point A, gives a definition, and we've got to start there.
The word aseity is taken from the Latin, ase, meaning on himself,
or more literally, from oneself. It means that God did not come
from anywhere or receive anything from anyone or anything outside
of himself. He depends on himself and on
no other. He is independent, He is self-sufficient,
He is self-existent, and in need of absolutely nothing. He doesn't
need you, He doesn't need me. God doesn't even need your love,
your worship, your wisdom, your service, or anything else. Isn't
that a surprise? I think we tend to think a little
bit more highly of ourselves than we ought. But before creation,
before time even existed, God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit existed alone, yet in perfect love, fellowship,
and without any sense of need. There was a total satisfaction
and contentment within the Godhead. All that He has done in creation
is really just the outflow of His character. Now why do I say
that that is such good news? Someone might feel if God doesn't
need me, then I'm insignificant. I'm unimportant. I don't think
I like that doctrine. It doesn't give me any self-esteem.
And I will have to admit that it is a very humbling doctrine. There's going to be zero self-esteem
you're going to get this morning from this doctrine. But, once
we are humbled, it is an incredibly encouraging and liberating and
freeing doctrine. It really is. Can you imagine
how awful it would be to discover that the only reason God loved
you is because He needed you, and He wanted to get things out
of you, and He wanted to manipulate you? You've probably all experienced
relationships where you thought the person loved you, but the
only reason that they hung around you is what they could get out
of you. And that's not the case with
God. Because aseity means God has
no needs, God cannot be selfish. And if it was not for this doctrine
of aseity, really God could be misunderstood as being the biggest
user of all. And this is the way some books
present him, that God was lonely, and so God created humans. That's
really nonsense. He always had perfect fellowship
in the Trinity, three persons and one God, not three gods,
one God and three persons. And the point is that need is
not a good basis for love in human relationships, and it's
certainly not good if God had such emotional needs. Another
example. Can you imagine how frightening it would be to discover
that God couldn't do certain things because he had needs and
inadequacies? just like any other person. Rabbi
Harold Kushner wrote a horrible book called When Bad Things Happen
to Good People. He saw God as having needs and
insufficiencies, and I want you to listen to this sample statement
from his book, why I consider it to be such a horrible and
blasphemous theology. He said, bad things do happen
to good people in this world, but it is not God who wills it. God would like people to get
what they deserve in life, but he cannot always arrange it.
Even God has a hard time keeping chaos in check and limiting the
damage evil can do. Oh, wow. What a depressing theology. Today we're going to be seeing
this horrible view of God that will actually leave people feeling
hopeless. It might make you feel like your
financial deal fell through because God wasn't able to work all things
together for your good. Maybe if he had a little bit
more time he would have been able to make that financial deal
work out, or if he could have influenced enough people to help
him cooperate with you. But we know this is false. Romans
8, 28 is true because God has no needs. In other words, because
of this doctrine of aseity. The aseity of God is a critically
important doctrine, and yet it's a doctrine that many Arminian
Christians regularly deny. And let me start with a quote
on prayer that denies God's aseity. This quote comes from an incredibly
popular book on prayer. I've learned a number of good
things from this book, but in this book, the anonymous author
makes this mistake. He says, the fact remains that
when we pray for others, somehow or other, it opens the way for
God to influence those we pray for. God needs our prayers or
he would not beg us to pray. Sorry, that is absolutely wrong. Here's another quote from an
Arminian author. Colbert Rutenberg says, God,
who in his love wills to give so much, can be frustrated by
our refusal to receive. At this point, the sin that God
hates inevitably determines the relationship, and we know God
only in his judgment to our condemnation and to his infinite sorrow. When
God finds us, he comes not as one who confers a favor out of
his superfluity, He comes asking a favor of us. He stands as a
beggar at our door. He makes no effort to break in
upon our independence. He merely pleads that we will
be so good as not to refuse the gift which he has traveled so
far to bring. I think that is about as clear
a denial of the aseity of God as you could get. And again,
talk about a depressing theology. And yet, bad theology quotes
like this could be quoted a number of times from Arminians and openness
of God theologians and Roman Catholics and others. The doctrine
of aseity corrects these ill-founded ideas. Let's take a look at a
few scriptures that illustrate this doctrine. People sometimes
say that God needs our worship or our service, but let's go
back to Acts 17. Let's read once again what Paul
said in Acts 17, verses 24 through 25. These verses speak to really
more than one facet of a saiety. It says, God who made the world
and everything in it. Now just consider that for a
second. If God made everything in this world, then logically
God is not dependent upon this creation, rather the creation
is dependent upon Him. It says, since he is Lord of
heaven and earth, as Lord he is not dependent, instead heaven
and earth are dependent on him. Since he is Lord of heaven and
earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. In other words,
God is not limited by space. He doesn't need to be in the
right place at the right time, and because he wasn't there,
you know, things got messed up. Verse 25, nor is he worshiped
with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives
to all life, breath, and all things. So Paul says, God doesn't
need our worship. He doesn't need anything else
from us. After all, we wouldn't even be able to sing praises
to him if he didn't give us life, the breath that we're breathing
as we're singing, and all things. There is nothing we can give
to God that He has not first given to us. Scripture says we
love because He first loved us. In fact, Romans 5 verse 5 says
we couldn't have any divine agape love if God did not first shed
forth in our hearts that agape love. So we're loving with a
divinely given love. In Luke 17.10, Christ said, So
likewise you, when you have done all those things which you were
commanded, say, We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was
our duty to do. commands us to believe that we
are unprofitable servants, it means that our service doesn't
profit God, right? It doesn't fill up some lack
that He has. It's for our good that we serve.
It's not for His profit. Next, he doesn't need all of
the sacrifices that men might make. Turn with me to Psalm 50,
and we're going to read verses 8 through 13. We're going to
actually sing this psalm after the message, but this is another
passage that puts us in our place when we think a little bit too
highly of ourselves. God had commanded the Israelites
to make sacrifices, and so it was their duty to do that, no
question about that. But rather than engaging in the
duty out of love and out of gratitude, the Israelites were doing this
in order to manipulate God. Hey God, look at all of the sacrifices
we're making for you. You owe us. What are you going
to do for us in return? And since God doesn't have any
need, He can't be manipulated, and so God responds by saying,
and I'm going to begin reading at verse 8 of Psalm 50, I will
not reprove you for your sacrifices or burnt offerings which are
continually before me. I will not take a bull from your
house nor goats out of your folds, for every beast of the forest
is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of
the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were
hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine in all
of its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood
of goats? Offer to God thanksgiving and
pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble,
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. So he is saying that
we are the only ones that benefit by glorifying the Lord. He needs
nothing. He calls us to worship in order
to usher us into the perfect fellowship that the triune God
already has. And because he has no needs,
he can overflow in generosity, desiring us to enter into the
abundance that he has. Perhaps you have heard name-it-and-claim-it
types commanding God to do things in their prayers. Boy, some of
the pastors that I've heard do, it makes the hair stand up on
my neck. You know, it's just commanding God. Heal, in the
name of Jesus, heal. And they command God to multiply
the money that they have sacrificially given to the Lord. I've given
$1,000, now I'm expecting $10,000 from the Lord in return. But
Romans 11.35 says, or who has first given to him and it shall
be repaid to him? And the implied answer is no
one. God is never indebted to us because
he doesn't need our gifts in the first place. And furthermore,
everything that we give to God in the offering box in the back
of the auditorium, he's already given to us. We're not owners,
we're stewards, right? And so if you think that you've
earned God's favor by putting money into the offering box,
you're mistaken. It's a love relationship, not a merit relationship. And I'm so thankful that part
of the overflow of God's heart in giving to us enables us to
imitate Him by giving to Him even though He doesn't need it.
And let me use an illustration to show why giving gifts to God
can still be seen as a significant act of love. A father doesn't
need the scribbled love notes that his three-year-old child
makes, and yet that father delights in those scribbled notes and
puts them on the wall and finds great delight in it because this
is a love note from the child. It's imperfect, and yet it is
received. So it's love that needs to drive
our giving to the Lord, and hopefully that makes sense. Next, God doesn't
need your wisdom. Now you probably already figured
that out before I preached on omniscience last week, but it
bears repeating with respect to his aseity. Job 22 verse 2
says, Can a man be profitable to God, though he who is wise
may be profitable to himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty
that you are righteous, or is it gain to Him that you make
your ways blameless? So God doesn't gain from our
wisdom, since He already knows everything that needs to be known.
But though this doctrine may make us feel very, very small
in one sense, it is liberating in another sense, because we
don't have to earn God's favor, praise God. The whole world is
not going to fall apart because we got limitations in our wisdom.
Praise God. Next, God doesn't command us
to be righteous so as to help God out somehow. And the verse
we just read, you know, mentioned that along with wisdom. Does
he gain from our righteousness? That verse says no. It's for
our own good that he commands us to be righteous, but consider
the following two verses from Job that deny that God gets any
benefit whatsoever from our righteousness. If you are righteous, what do
you give him, or what does he receive from your hand? Is it
any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous, or is
it gain to him that you make your ways blameless? Next, God
doesn't need our witness or our testimony in order to advance
His cause. In John 2, verse 25, it says,
Jesus did not need anyone to testify of Him. No one needed
to. Well, if that's the case, why
are we commanded to testify to His name and engage in evangelism?
You know, is God in need of our testimony? No. He could convert
the whole world in an instant if He wanted to, but He has allowed
us to witness, and He's made our witness and our testimony
to be significant because He accompanies it with His grace.
He accompanies it with His power and enables us to grow in our
relationship with Him. He makes us to have a significant
part of His history. It's a God-centered reason, not
a man-centered reason. Nehemiah 9 verse 5 says, God
doesn't need man to glorify Him, since He is already glorious,
far above all blessing and praise that we could bring to Him. We
glorify Him because it makes us more and more like the triune
God, and thus benefits us. The Father glorifies the Son,
the Son glorifies the Father, the Spirit glorifies the Son
and the Father, and the doctrine of aseity means that no person
of the Trinity selfishly seeks his own glory. That's biblical. They're always selflessly glorifying
each other, and the more we become transformed into the image of
Jesus, the more we delight in glorifying God, not to gain favor,
but simply because we see how awesome He is and we can't help
but adore Him and glorify Him. And you can study some of the
other passages and subpoints in your outline that I've given
there. You can study those for yourself.
I give passages which show how all idols need man in some way. By the way, that's probably why
men like idols. Those idols are limited. They're
finite. They need man. They could be
manipulated. Or at least people think that they can. Those idols
are beholden to man. They're dependent in some way.
They need us, and we like to be needed. But God says He doesn't
need us, and that's humbling. The outline points out that an
aspect of a saiety is that God owns everything in this universe
and does not owe us anything. Now Job started talking as if
God owed him an answer. Can you imagine that? But here's
how the Living Bible nicely translates God's answer. I owe no one anything. Everything under heaven is mine. Job 41 verse 11. Now if God owes
us nothing, that means that when he binds himself with a promise,
It's God's character alone that obligates God to follow through
on fulfilling that promise. Well, God's character is a much
better foundation for praying than thinking God owes us. So
I'm not in any way questioning that God must follow through
on his promises, but he must follow through because he has
obligated himself to do so, and his attributes of faithfulness
and truthfulness mean we can bank on his promises. I'm just
saying that the obligation has nothing to do with us, and it
has everything to do with Him. He makes His promises because
He is a self-giving and a generous God by nature. As Acts 17 says,
He gives all things. I want you to turn with me to
Exodus chapter 3, and we'll finish off our description of God's
aseity with this passage. I think this is one of the most
beautiful summaries of God's aseity in the Bible. It's the
use of the name I Am. Moses was a man who sensed a
huge need in himself. You could say that he was insecure,
and God's solution was not to build up Moses' self-esteem. It's really a backwards way of
gaining security. Self-esteem is not a sure foundation
for security at all. But look at Exodus 3, beginning
at verse 4. So when the Lord saw that he
turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the
bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. Then
he said, do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off
your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. So
God's solution to Moses' inadequacy was not to say, Moses, you're
such a swell guy. That was not at all what he was
going to do. was so overwhelmed with God,
he didn't even feel he was worthy to stand on the same ground to
which God had appeared. Not at all. There was no way
you could convince Moses, I'm okay and you're okay, which is
the title of a wretched book out there, which I would encourage
you not to read. Instead, God takes Moses' attention off of
himself and off of his inadequacies and onto God's total sufficiency. You see, if God needs nothing
and he has everything, then he's the one that can meet all of
our needs, right? And so God speaks of all of the blessings
he had already given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in verses 6
through 9. Then in verse 10 he says, come now therefore, and
the therefore is pointing back to God's total sufficiency, come
now therefore and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring
my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Now Moses initially
misses the point and he is immediately overwhelmed with the sense of
his inadequacy and he says, no way, I can't do this. His first
excuse is given in verse 11. But Moses said to God, who am
I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children
of Israel out of Egypt? Moses was in effect saying, I'm
needy. I can't do this. There's no way
I can do this. You know, I've got all kinds
of lacks and inadequacies. I'm timid. I'm not a good speaker.
I'm not well known. And here comes God's solution.
So he said, I will certainly be with you. That's the answer.
I will certainly be with you. And for each excuse that Moses
brings up, God points Moses to himself and the fact that he,
that is God, can handle any situation. Now, Moses had a hard time trusting
God's sufficiency. Moses thought God needed someone
who could speak better. And God said, hey, who made man's
mouth? I'm the one who made your mouth.
You don't think you can come through for me? I am sufficient
for you." And so God answers all seven of Moses' excuses by
pointing to his all-sufficiency. But I think verses 14 through
15 sum up the aseity of God so well. God said to Moses, I am
who I am. And he said, thus you shall say
to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Moreover,
God said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel,
the Lord, and any time in the New King James you see Lord in
all capital letters, it's the name Yehovah, which by the way
is the sister word to I am. It's the root word of I am, right?
I am is the root word of Yehovah, I should say. So he says, The
Lord, God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever,
and this is my memorial to all generations. So central to God's
character and being is that he is eternally present and self-existing. He did not come from others,
he just is. And by the way, when Jesus used
that title, I am, he was claiming to be God. When he said, before
Abraham was, I am, he was claiming to be very God, a very, he was
claiming to have this attribute of a saty, and the Jews recognized
it because they didn't think he was God. They picked up stones
to stone him because they knew exactly what he was saying. He
was claiming a saty. But wrapped up in the name I
Am and its sister word, Yehovah, is God's lordship over all. Nothing
else is an eternally self-conscious I Am. We came from God and are
therefore dependent and totally accountable to God. And so that
I Am, that term, speaks of God's all-sufficiency, not I will become. But I am. And because God has
no needs, he can convince Moses that he can supply any needs
that he may have. Are you weak? I am the Almighty.
Are you in bondage? I am the Redeemer of Israel.
Are you filled with sorrow and grief? God says, I am your comfort.
I am the joy of your salvation. I am the bread of life. I am
the living water. I am the light of the world. I am the first
and the last. I am the deliverer. I am the true and the faithful
one. You can fill in a multitude of other I am's which come out
of the fact He has no needs, but He overflows for our needs. And I'm going to skip over some
of the other sub-points in scriptures that show God is independent
of all things in His thought, His will, His power, and His
counsel. In contrast, Acts 17, 25 through 28 says all things
are dependent upon Him. And thus there is this vast creator-creature
distinction that we have talked about before that can never be
crossed. We can never be like God, as some heretics insist,
because we can never have a saiety. Okay, it's an incommunicable
attribute. So hopefully by now you're convinced
it's a biblical doctrine, and I want to look next at what difference
it should make in how we live. Now, obviously, we can't imitate
a saiety itself or we would be God. If you read in systematic
theologies, they usually group God's attributes under two categories. There are communicable attributes
like love and holiness and mercy, and there are incommunicable
attributes like what Daniel preached on, his infinity, his a saiety,
and by incommunicable, it means God could not communicate His
infinity or His aseity or any other incommunicable attribute
in the least little bit into us because we're creatures. By
very definition, we cannot have aseity. It's unique to God. So let's look at some of the
practical applications. First of all, the more you understand
this attribute, the more you will realize how unselfish God
is, and how absolutely selfless God's love and all of his other
attributes are. And I'm gonna take the first
three sub-points together because I think they answer a frequent
objection from atheists that we actually began the service
with, and I think they bring real comfort. If you've listened
to very many debates of atheists with Christians, you're probably
familiar with their accusation that the Christian God is a narcissistic,
self-absorbed, selfish God. They say, your God is selfish.
All he wants is recognition, glory, attention, worship, and
service. What kind of God is that? It's
all about him and his desires. He commands you to be self-sacrificing.
But him? No. He wants everything for himself. Here's another quote from an
atheist blog. I'm having trouble seeing the Christian God as anything
other than totally narcissistic and self-centered. Here's a quick
outline of why, and he gives a number of reasons. And he says,
God values his own glory and honor over the well-being of
humans. God chooses himself over people
for his own benefit. God is selfish. So what are we
to think about that? I've actually read a number of
ill-informed Christian blogs that really struggle with this
idea of selfishness. One blog that I read said, okay,
so God is selfish, get over it. But that's not a good answer
at all. Selfishness is one of the horrible sins that the Bible
condemns in man. In fact, the book of Philippians
calls us to imitate God in being unselfish. Okay? Just read the book of Philippians
sometimes and you will see that it commands us to imitate God's
selfless concern for others. And so if, as some assert, God
is selfish to the core of His being just like we humans are,
we've got a major, major problem. And the Scriptures in the first
three points give some good answers. The first answer is that God
is not a solitary person. God is a trinity. The Islamic
God is an isolated, singular person. And if he had love at
all before there was any world to love, Who would he love? He would have only been able
to love himself, and so it's not surprising to see the Islamic
God being very, very selfish. But since God is a trinity, we
see a radically different character to his love. His love is agape
love, which is self-giving, self-sacrificing love. Agape love is the exact
opposite of narcissistic love. The Father loves the Son and
the Spirit, not himself. Likewise, the Father praises
and glorifies the Son and the Spirit, not Himself. And you
see examples of the Father even deflecting praise to the Son. This is My beloved Son, hear
Him. Mark 9 verse 7. On another occasion, He said,
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And likewise,
the Father is represented as giving the Son glory, giving
the Son a people, that's you and me, giving the Son a world,
giving the Son all things. So He gave everything. He gave
His all to the Son. Well, the Son's love is the same.
He gives His all to the Spirit, and at the second coming, He's
going to give it all back to the Father. The Son's intense
desire is to glorify the Father and please Him. Hebrews 5.5 says,
So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest,
but it was He who said to Him, You are my Son, today I have
begotten You. Acts 7.55 is one of many passages
that shows that the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son and the Father.
The Son so honors the Spirit that He says, any blasphemy against
Me and against the Father will be forgiven, but blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. He's honoring the Holy Spirit. And so you can see that... Excuse
me. So you can see that the Father
and the Son and the Spirit are all passionate about each other. What's the Spirit's passion?
It's to lift up the Son and the Father. And so Father, Son, and
Spirit, they're always flowing outward to each other in fellowship,
praise, glory, and gifts. Why does the Son want to glorify
the Father? Because that's the passion of
His heart. Why does the Father want to glorify the Son? That's
the passion of His heart. And if you're indwelt with the
Holy Spirit, you cannot help but glorify the Son and the Father
because it's the passion of the Holy Spirit. It is because the
Holy Spirit fills you that you want to worship and you want
to sing God's praises. It brings you great joy, just
as glorifying the Son and the Father brings great joy to the
Holy Spirit. And it's because Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
are so God-focused that they created all things to be God-focused. That is not selfishness. That
is considering the interests of each other person of the Trinity
to be better than their own. It's the antithesis of selfishness.
Humility and meekness are actually two of the communicable attributes
of God. God is the most humble, the most
meek person in the universe. Each of the persons are the most
humble. And besides, how could God be selfish when he needs
nothing? He can't. Acts 17.25 again, nor is he worshipped
with men's hands as though he needed anything. since He gives
to all life, breath, and all things. Because He doesn't have
any needs, it's impossible for Him to be selfish or to serve
His own needs. If He doesn't have any needs,
He can't logically be said to serve His own needs, right? And
yet it would be a mistake to say that because God doesn't
need us, He doesn't love us. There is no greater love that
God could have than the love that he bestows upon us, is what
the scripture says. God values us, he delights in
us, not because we're good or because we've contributed anything
additional to him, but because it's of his very nature to be
self-giving. So it would be a mistake to say
that because God doesn't need us, He doesn't love us very much.
It's precisely because He doesn't have any needs that He has the
most selfless, highest degree of agape love or self-giving,
sacrificial love. Now just by way of illustration,
it would be a mistake for us to say that we can only love
a husband or a wife who still meets our needs. Or we can only
love a person in the church who is lovable. I've read books that
actually say you can't love others until you love and accept yourself.
That's absolute nonsense. The Bible says the exact opposite.
Here's what Christ says. Christ says you can't even be
his disciple unless you hate your own flesh also. That's incredible. We tend to love people who are
easy to get along with, who are fun, in some way meet our needs,
but Christ commands us to love our enemies as well. If you have
love for your enemies, you have begun to take on the character
of divine love. Paul commanded us, let no one
seek his own, but each one the other's well-being, 1 Corinthians
10.24. But because selfishness is so
hateful to God, he is guaranteed that those who put themselves
first will find themselves last. Those who seek their own welfare
only will never be satisfied. Whereas God puts you first when
you put yourself last. That's the cool thing about it.
And so we can imitate the results of God's aseity, his communicable
attributes, because God has promised to meet all of our needs in Christ
Jesus. Now another practical implication of God's aseity is
that this attribute means that God cannot be manipulated by
us. I know I've already hinted at
this. But the way some people pray, you would think God was
dependent upon us. Listen to this quote from a popular
book on the gospel. The author over and over paints
God as dependent upon us and having needs. He says, God stands
as a beggar at our door. He makes no effort to break in
upon our independence. Well, that strips God of his
Godhood. Our prayers need to be more full of praise for who
he is, more full of scriptural promises that we're laying claim
to, and more full of thanksgiving for what he has done. In other
words, we need to be more God-centered. I was reading a blog where a
reformed guy was arguing with a purpose-driven life guy. And
the reformed guy was rightly arguing. that God was God-centered,
and the purpose-driven life guy said that God was man-centered,
or he'd be selfish. And he said no. God would cease
to be God if he was not God-centered. So I hope by now you see the
foolishness of a man-centered theology. It will strip God of
his godhood and ironically rob man of all that man needs. I
think it was Michael Horton who said that the God of evangelicals
has become way too small. If we see God for who he really
is and we see how feeble we really are, Our prayer life, far from
being diminished, will be energized. We won't try to manipulate Him.
Instead, we'll be able to pray in faith for this world's true
needs and our true needs, knowing that God loves us and loves to
give all good things. But we'll seek to glorify Him
with everything that He gives to us. Next, God's aseity frees us up
from having to impress God. That was the point of Psalm 50.
Rather than bringing worship out of hearts of love and gratitude,
the psalmist complains that the Israelites were seeking to impress
God with their pomp and ceremony and the amount of skill and sacrifice
that was involved in their worship. And what the psalmist is pointing
out, God sees into the hearts. He sees whether we're worshiping
out of love, or whether we're just doing it to worship or doing
it to impress others. God would far rather be listening
to singing that was off-key from hearts of love than to be listening
to awesome bands and music that was right on tune, and yet they
were doing it out of pride and self-seeking. So realizing that
God isn't impressed, doesn't have needs, helps us to focus
on what is important, relationship with Him, which again is the
main theme of this mini-series. The next point says that if God
needs nothing, that means that His actions towards others are
self-giving rather than self-serving. And we need to interpret God's
providences this way. When a tragedy hits you, If we
really understand God's attributes, we'll be able to say with Joseph
that God intended it for good. You meant evil against me, but
God intended it for good. Others feel that maybe God doesn't
care. God doesn't love me. He's being
selfish with his abundance. He's holding out on me. God's
wisdom assures us that this thing that came into our lives has
meaning. It's rational. It's part of an all-wise plan.
God's power assures us that God is in complete control. God's
personality assures us that he's not done this in a cold and calculated
way. And God's aseity assures us that
there was not a speck of selfishness involved. And people say, yeah,
well, what about sending people to hell? Well, I believe even
the doctrine of reprobation shows God's aseity, that this is true.
Romans 9 tells us that God endured with much longsuffering the vessels
of wrath fitted for destruction. Now, doing this was self-sacrificial. He endured with much longsuffering.
Ephesians 3 tells us that God allowed all of this to show forth
the glory of his attributes to the church. We would never have
known the depths of God's love if God had not allowed sin. Nor
would we have known his wrath, his justice, his mercy, or his
other attributes to the same degree. So God benefited the
church in all that he did. We've been seeing over the past
four weeks, God is unbelievably generous in making all of his
attributes work for our benefit. And it's this doctrine of aseity
that enables that to be true. And I think we can encourage
our hearts in that. God is the great I am who overflows in generosity
to his people. Next, it means that even though
God has made our work significant, the burden for success does not
rest on our shoulders. Praise God. He has made us significant
even though we're not needed. In Matthew 6, Jesus was speaking
against the tyranny of the urgent that so many of us find ourselves
involved in. And he said this, are you not
of more value than they? God values you as a person, not
just for what you produce. We have this tendency to think
we're not going to be significant unless we produce a lot. No,
God values you as a person, not just for what you produce. I
praise God for that. It's liberating. The God who
created the universe on day one could produce all of the works
that every saint has produced from creation to the present
in an instant. And so he doesn't need those
works. He gives us those labors so that we share in his attributes,
enter into his fellowship, and it's fellowship with the triune
God that's the goal of all that we do. And that relates to the
next point as well. It says it means that your relationship
to God is more important than trying to impress God, Amos 5,
20 through 23. And God has ordained that it's
better for us, Jeremiah 7, 21 through 23. Now in Amos, God
actually despised the wonderful songs and sacrifices and all
of the beautiful worship that they were offering up, and He
despised it because they were offering these things out of
relationship with Him. That means that their worship
and service had actually lost its purpose. In Jeremiah 7, God
said that the temple worship He instituted was not for the
sake of worship. It's not worship for the sake
of worship. It was to draw them into relationship with Him. We
serve Him because He, not because He needs our service, but because
we love Him and want to bless Him, just as Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit love to bless each other. Next, even though we do
not have a seate, since it's an incommunicable attribute,
God does share the communicable attributes that flow out of His
aseity. Generosity, love, responsibility,
service. And I'll just illustrate with
two verses from Galatians 6 that may at first seem contradictory,
but I think it gives a balance. Just as each person of the Trinity
loves, glorifies, serves, and points to the other persons of
the Trinity, not to himself, Galatians 2.2 says, bear one
another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. But just as
each person of the Trinity is utterly unselfish, verse 5 says,
for each one shall bear his own load. So when each person not
only bears his own load, but willingly serves other people's
loads, it's a joy to serve and it's a joy to be served. And
by the way, if you're unwilling to be served by others in the
church, you're not imitating the Trinity either. I have known
people who are so prideful, they will never allow anybody to serve
them. They're not imitating the Trinity.
And so Galatians 6, 2, and 5 illustrate this balance of serving selflessly,
yet willing to be served. But another way that we can grow
to appreciate God's aseity, and we'll end with this, is to not
act as if we are self-sufficient. Unlike God, who is 100% independent
of creation, 100% self-sufficient, we are 100% dependent upon Him and
not sufficient to ourselves. And so while we serve God faithfully,
we can acknowledge that even the things we're doing come from
Him. In other words, we're totally dependent. I once read a book
about the Amazon River. It's an incredibly huge river. It accounts for, let me get it
here, one-fifth of all the fresh water that pours into the oceans
of the world. At its estuary, it's 150 miles
wide. mainstream is 50 miles wide.
It's got such power that it pours fresh water 200 miles out into
the ocean. So you could be completely out
of sight of land and you're still in fresh water. Well, there are
stories of sailing ships in the olden days that would be be calmed
in the ocean far off of the South American coast and would run
out of water. And one of the accounts that
I read is the ship paddled out to another ship that was becalmed
and said, can you spare a little bit of water? And the word that
came back was, just lower your buckets. You're in the mighty
mouth of the Amazon. So much water was available and
yet thirsting to death. The doctrine of God's aseity
assures us that there is no need for you to thirst. Because God
has no need, he is always overflowing and supplying our needs. And
so lower your buckets and drink from the living rivers of water
that Christ offers in His grace. There is more than enough for
your every need. Don't make excuses like Moses
made to God. Believe Him, trust Him, go forth
in obedience to His word. Amen. Father, we thank you that
you are sufficient and more than sufficient for all of our needs.
We thank you that you are so selfless. We want to become more
and more selfless like you. We thank you for your generosity,
for your agape love. We thank you that all of your
attributes of holiness, patience, loving kindness, service, administration,
all of the things that make you the incredible governor of this
universe, are administered on our behalf, and we want to imitate
you by being selfless ourselves. We know that we cannot do this
in ourselves because we don't have a saiety, but we can become
selfless as we drink of the grace that flows from Christ. So help
us, day by day, moment by moment, to do this. In Jesus' name, amen.
The God Who Cannot Be Selfish - Aseity
Series Attributes of God
| Sermon ID | 692440167395 |
| Duration | 45:05 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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