The Nature of God #2

Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in The Truth Pulpit. Now secondly, God is independent. God is independent. And in this we jump into the ocean and plumb depths that you never reach the bottom of. God is independent.

We mean this in two ways. First of all, God is independent in the sense that He is self-existent. He is self-existent.

And what we mean by self-existence is this. God had no beginning. Nothing gave rise to God. There is no source behind God which explains His being. There is no origin to God. Just as He is timeless and infinite going into eternity future, so in like manner, He is infinite and has always been. God revealed Himself in Exodus chapter 3 verse 14 to Moses saying, I am who I am.

There are no categories that we can place upon Him. Look at John chapter 5 verse 26. John 5 verse 26.

And as you're turning there, let me just say this, that in this session really I'm just trying to start your thinking, to acquaint you with things that are really critical about the nature of God, realizing that we're not going to exhaust the subject in anything that we say, just to get you started. In John chapter 5 verse 26, Jesus said, just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself. The principle of life, the principle of God's being is internal to Him.

It has always been a part of His nature. No one gave it to Him. It didn't start anywhere. And this is a place where we have no categories to compare it to.

This is something strictly incommunicable. Those of you who are parents have perhaps dealt with this stunning question, or in past times maybe you've taught children. Sometimes children will ask, where did God come from?

And you're left with saying, it's time for a snack. And you try to change the subject because you don't know how to answer that question. Well, here's the answer to the question. God did not come from anywhere. God did not come from anyone. And that question, which is a well-intentioned question on the lips of a young child, is an opportunity for you to say and to understand this.

That's a perfectly logical question, but you need to understand something. God is different. And so we don't think about God like we think about everything else. We can say that this car came from Detroit, or that you came from your mommy and daddy, or that the mountains were created by God.

But we're speaking in a creaturely realm. When it comes to God, we're in a different realm and we have to think differently about Him. Nothing caused God.

He simply and eternally is. And so when we talk about God being independent, there is no source to Him. He had no beginning.

He'll have no end. He cannot die, which we'll talk about in a couple of weeks in a different session, from a different perspective. But God exists by virtue of Himself. His being was not conferred upon Him by a prior being or by a greater being. Now, secondly, God is independent in the sense that He has no need.

God does not need anything. Look over at Acts chapter 17 with me. Acts chapter 17, verse 24 and 25. Acts 17, verses 24 and 25.

The apostle Paul is speaking to the Greeks on Mars Hill. And in their ignorance, he is making the true God known to them. In verse 24, the God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He served by human hands as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.

The existence of life as we know it, as we see it, is derivative from the one who has life in himself. God does not need to be fed by human hands. He does not need contributions from human hands to continue His existence. In that way, you and I are completely unlike Him. You and I must have food and water to sustain our physical existence.

We need rest in order to continue going. God is not like that. He is completely separate from that. He does not need to be fed.

He does not need outside contribution. He has an energy all of His own that has always existed, that always will, that is completely sufficient for Him to be who He is without diminishment. And so God is independent in the sense that He has no need. Look over at Romans chapter 11. We'll look at this passage twice today, perhaps. In Romans chapter 11, in verse 33, once again, when Scripture writers contemplate God, they realize that they've reached the limits of human language. In verse 33, the apostle Paul, after explaining the great doctrine of salvation from sin to justification through sanctification to the future of Israel, concludes it all in verse 33 saying, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.

Amen. Nobody can say they gave anything to God. Nobody can say they gave Him something that He did not already have. Scripture says that even the cattle on a thousand hills belong to Him. He owns all of creation.

And so anything that we say we're giving to God is something that He first gave to us. Nobody gives advice to God. He doesn't need our counsel to determine what is wise to do. He is completely independent of your actions, of your thoughts.

He does not need our advice in order to govern the universe with wisdom. He's independent of all of that. And the technical term that is sometimes used, the theological term used to describe His independence is a term called His aseity. His aseity.

A-S-E-I-T-Y. His aseity. Simply meaning that God is self-existent. He is self-sustaining. No one gave life to Him. No one can take His life away from Him.

No one is like Him. He is independent in a way that has no mirror to us. And so God is invisible and God is independent.

Now, thirdly, let's consider this as we move all too quickly along. God is infinite. God is infinite. God has no boundaries. God has no limits. That's what we mean by the fact that He is infinite.

And this can be seen in a couple of different ways. With respect to time, God had no beginning and will have no end. Look at Psalm 90. Psalm 90. In Psalm 90, verse 1, we've studied this psalm a couple of times, even at Truth Community.

The Psalm of Moses, in verse 1, it says, Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born, or You gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. He existed before time began.

He existed before creation. He has no beginning. He'll have no end. He is so infinite. He is so vast. He is so immense that He cannot be contained within the bounds of time. How are you and I supposed to understand something like that?

That's the only thing we know. We only know the realm of time in our human existence. How can we burst through the bounds of time to understand the infinity of God as a finite, time-bound creature and a sinful one at that? As you study these things, as you consider the implications of what Scripture says about God, we come back to this point that we're dealing with someone other than us, someone different than us.

And if you'll indulge a brief tangent for just a moment. Do you see that this affects, this has profound implications for our philosophy of ministry, for what a church should do and be? When churches try to make God common by organizing all that is said and all that is done simply around human need and making it something that is appealing to human beings, what they do, often without thinking about it, is they put man at the center and decide that God is going to relate to them from the center of man's existence and what man wants. Do you understand that that can't possibly be correct and that that can only lead certainly to idolatry? Because it teaches people to categorize God and to think about God and to justify the existence from God in terms of how he relates to me and what he means to me. It puts man at the center and says, God must be understood and discussed in ways that matter to me. That can't be right. That can only lead people astray.

Why? Because the starting point is God. Everything comes from him and so we have to start with God and when we start with God, what we find in his invisibility and in his infinity and in his independence, we find that he's someone completely different from us. And so to try to start from the perspective of man and saying, let's talk about God only as man will deem him relevant is to completely miss the point. And so this is why when we study systematic theology, we start with revelation and then we say, what does revelation say about God? It says that he's somebody who is unsearchable and all of a sudden you say, okay, then this makes God big and it makes me small.

And that is the right way for us to think. With respect to time, God had no beginning and he will have no end. Now, with respect to space, time and space, with respect to space, God is immense by which we mean he has no spatial boundaries. He is everywhere present.

He is omnipresent. Look at Psalm 139 in a familiar text. Psalm 139. Beginning in verse seven.

Psalm 139 in verse seven. David says, Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there.

If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me and your right hand will lay hold of me. God is everywhere present. He is omnipresent. He is everywhere in the fullness of his being. It's not like God is over at the end of the corner there and somehow God is present everywhere in his creation. And yet, carefully said, he is distinct from his creation as well. God is not in the chair. The chair is not part of God. But God is present everywhere in his creation.

Why? Because he's infinite. He transcends the boundaries of time. He transcends the bounds of space in a way that is completely foreign to our experience.

You're here inside this building and you're not simultaneously someplace else. That's not true of God. He's present everywhere at all times existing in his unique infinity. And so, when you consider that God is invisible, that he is infinite, that he is independent, you see that he's unsearchable. We cannot put our arms around God, so to speak. We cannot get our minds around this kind of being.

There's one more I word that I want to give you here. Point number four. Just by way of review, we said, first of all, God is invisible. God is independent and God is infinite in a way that is distinct from us.

Finally, point number four. God is immutable. God is immutable. And his immutability means that he does not change.

You know, and if you stopped, we're sweeping through these so quickly. But if you stopped at any one of these and dwell on them, you realize that this, we're talking about unsearchable things. How can someone be a personal being yet without a material body like what we're used to? How is a being infinite and transcending space and time?

How can someone not have a beginning? And we just start to realize the majesty of God. And for those of you who are believers in Christ here this morning, what this does is it just draws you to worship. Worship is a response of an inferior being ascribing honor to a greater being. Well, God is greater than us and that is why we worship him. Christ has redeemed us. That's why we worship him. But there is a recognition in worship that we're approaching someone greater. And that is true as we consider his immutability.

His immutability means that he does not change. In Malachi chapter 3 verse 6, he says, I, the Lord, do not change. Look at Psalm 102, a key text on this point. Psalm 102. Beginning in verse 25. Psalm 102 verse 25. Of old you founded the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. Even they will perish but you endure and all of them will wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be changed but you are the same and your years will not come to an end.

You are the same. Do you realize that as we talk about God in this context of 2016 today, God is exactly the same today as he was before creation began. He has not altered at all. God cannot change because he is perfect. If he were to change, he would either change from perfection to something less or if he somehow changed to something better, it would mean that he was not perfect to begin with. So his perfection and his immutability means that he has always been the same and he always will be the same. There is never going to be a change in the essence of God. What God is, he has always been.

What God is, he forever will be. Look at James chapter 1 verse 17. James chapter 1 verse 17. It's remarkable as you read the New Testament epistles how frequently these great statements of God are made and it's so embedded in the biblical mindset that great things are said almost in passing. In James chapter 1 verse 17, it says, every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. There's no maneuvering in God's attributes.

They are always the same. His essence never changes. I've often quoted from S. Lewis Johnson.

If I were a wiser teacher, I would quote from him more often than I do. S. Lewis Johnson said and I quote, God now has all the attributes that he has ever had or ever will have. He is an immutable, unchangeable God because he is self-existent and he is completely sufficient to himself, end quote. Now, his immutability has a certain application for us that's very essential. Do you know why you can trust God?

There are multiple, multiple reasons. But you all would say, those of you that are believers anyway, even if you struggle in your walk to manifest this in serenity and peace in your heart, you all would say, I trust God. Do you realize that your trust is only valid if God is immutable, if God does not change? Because if somehow God changed, then you wouldn't know what he was going to be like in the future.

If he was a changing, variable being like you and I are, we're born, we're raised, we get sick, we die. Sometimes we're on our game. Sometimes we're off our game. Sometimes we're really pleasant.

Sometimes we're a pain in the neck, speaking in the first person, of course. God's not like that. God doesn't change. And the fact that he saved you and set his love upon you means that he will never take it away. The fact that God says, the scripture says, that he will work all things together for good, that depends on, that's shown by his sovereignty and by the fact that he will not change or alter his purposes in your life. And because he meant good from you from the beginning before creation when he chose you in Christ to be with him forever and he set that purpose upon you and has been working that out, it's never going to change. You rest in that and you have confidence and your soul finds its anchor, its rock, its fortress in the fact that God has done this and that, God does not change.

And therefore he will not vary in his purpose towards you. And so his immutability is one of the great grounds of the security and serenity of your soul. These things matter.

These things matter. Now, I'm going to skip ahead and I want to say just a few words about Christ in closing here. There are other things about the immutability of God that we should address. What does it mean when God, the scripture sometimes says God changed his mind in the preaching of Jonah, God relented and did not bring the judgment that he said, wasn't that a change in God? Well, the answer is no, that's not a change in God. It means that God is dealing with changing men and according to his unchanging character. And God deals as men change, as men repent, God's dealings with them differ in accordance with them but it's always from an unchanging character. God always deals graciously with those who repent and come to him through faith in Christ.

There's more to be said about that but we'll leave it there for now. God deals with changing men from an unchanging nature. Now, quickly, what about Jesus Christ?

We just want to deal with this really quickly here. Dealing in five minutes with what church history took a couple of centuries to hammer out. What about Jesus Christ? We teach that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh, that all the fullness of deity dwells in him in bodily form and yet he was visible. He walked on earth, people saw him.

I thought God was invisible. He died on the cross. I thought you said that God was immortal. As he walked on earth, he was confined to space. As he was born, he was born in a manger.

Scripture says that he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor before God and men. Isn't that reflecting change? And how does that deal with immutability? Have we gotten it all wrong by ascribing deity to our Lord Jesus Christ? If these principles are attributes of God, how is it then that we attribute deity to Christ in light of those things?

Well, here's the thing, beloved. What you must remember about our Lord Jesus is that he is one person with two distinct natures. He existed as God, but he took on human flesh. In his humanity, Christ was visible. In his humanity, Jesus grew and lived and was in one place and died. But his human nature did not alter the divine nature. The divine essence was not changed and Scripture goes out of its way to make this point clear. In Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8, it says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. And so when foolish people and skeptics and those who are hostile to the God of the Bible point to aspects of the human life of Christ and say this therefore shows that he was not God, they are simply manifesting the fact that they don't understand the most basic things about biblical revelation and theology and the things that have been studied and explained about Christ for centuries and centuries.

And so don't let that throw you off or make you doubt the things that Scripture has taught us. So God is invisible. God is independent. He is infinite.

He is immutable. And the question becomes this. Does that strain your thinking? Does this just stretch your mind to realms that you cannot comprehend?

It should because his greatness is unsearchable. For the unbeliever, the nature of God should provoke in you a fear of judgment. This great God who transcends all human thought, transcends time and space and is infinitely holy, this is the great God with whom you have to do. This is the great God who has appointed a day of judgment where men will appear before him and give an account for their lives. And to appear before this great God in the rags of unrighteousness and sin is an unthinkable destiny because you can see when you grasp something of the incommunicable attributes of God, there is no possibility of you being able to survive an encounter with him.

You need a savior. You need the Lord Jesus Christ who said, everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life. God in part makes himself known to extend himself even to unbelievers and say, I am supremely great and you cannot approach me on your own terms.

You must come in the one way that has been designated. There is no other name given to us under heaven by which men must be saved other than the name of the Lord Jesus. And so if you're here today and you do not know Christ or you're watching on the live stream and you don't know Christ, understand that the greatness of God compels you to repentance. For the Christian, for those of us that gather together in Christ today are in unchanging God. Our unchanging God is our rock and our fortress. We have come to one who has secured us and now that he has us in his family, now that he has us in his infinite, unchanging, immutable hand so to speak, do you see that you are safe and secure? Do you see the basis upon which we can believe and rejoice when scripture says he will never leave us or forsake us?

That's grounded not in your conduct, but in who he is. Let's pray together. Father, we bow in worship before the greatness of your unsearchable majesty. You are not like us. You have always been and you never change. You exist out of your own power.

No one made you, no one gives you anything that you didn't already have and you will never change. In the presence of such a great and magnificent God, we bow low and we worship. In the presence of your unsearchable majesty, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's clearer in our thinking today that we could never have approached you on our own. We needed God to step into our realm in order to save us and reconcile us to one so far beyond us. Those things speak to your love and your grace and your mercy, which we will see in days to come. But for now, we recognize your transcendence.

We worship you for it. We bow low and we thank you that in Christ we have one whose shed blood gives us perfect access, even bold and confident access, how great Christ must be if we can approach this great God through our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Sink these things deep into our spiritual hearts. Sink them deep into our thinking that we would grow and be stable believers in Christ as a result. In Christ's name we pray.

Amen. Just before we close, my friends, I just want to let you know that this podcast is made possible for you by the generous support of many friends of our ministry. We're grateful for that, and if you have supported us, I want to say a special word of thanks to you for all that you've done to make this possible. And if you would like to join in the support of our ministry, you can do that so easily by going to thetruthpulpit.com.

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Know that our love and prayers are with you. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time as we continue to study God's Word together here on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.