SPEAKER_00: Very thankful to be with you again this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The title of my message today is God Doesn't Need You.
SPEAKER_00: But you and I desperately need God.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't need you.
SPEAKER_00: But you and I desperately need God.
SPEAKER_00: I hope today to conclude this particular point in the catechism that you and I have been studying through.
SPEAKER_00: The point that we have been looking at is the question, what is God?
SPEAKER_00: And, brothers and sisters, I find it very beneficial in my study and in preaching where that when we commit ourselves to look at a topic, look at a subject, to preach through something that it holds me accountable to preach on things that I've never looked at before or rather never considered in that particular way.
SPEAKER_00: And so this subject of what is God is probably not a subject that I would just have randomly taken up.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you it's been very blessed to study it, to consider what is taught about it in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so, about this subject of what is God, you and I have already looked at that God is a spirit, that God is invisible, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all, that God is infinite.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we had preached on last Sunday and Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: This morning I hope to conclude what is God, and we'll move on to the next question in the catechism.
SPEAKER_00: But this morning I want to look at three things.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that one, that God is unchangeable, two, that God is eternal, and three, that God is self-existent.
SPEAKER_00: God is self-existent.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope this morning to conclude in talking about an illustration from Job's life.
SPEAKER_00: And the fact that, you know, there's a lot of questions that are brought up in the book of Job.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the main questions is how is it that a righteous man such as Job, a man who followed the Lord, he eschewed evil?
SPEAKER_00: And how is it that he had to suffer so much?
SPEAKER_00: And so I hope to in part answer that question this morning in looking at our question, what is God?
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to start this morning in what is God is that God is unchangeable.
SPEAKER_00: God is unchangeable.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you will, turn over to Malachi chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: We get a very straightforward verse in the Bible that simply states fact.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes us preachers try to use too many words when you don't need to use a whole lot of words.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think this is a wonderful verse.
SPEAKER_00: Malachi chapter 3, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: We read in Malachi 3, 6, for I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I change not.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
SPEAKER_00: For I am the Lord, I change not.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: And what does it mean that the sons of Jacob aren't consumed?
SPEAKER_00: If I mentioned before that if I was an all-powerful deity, and uh that if I had said that, you know, I set my love on a particular individual like you or I, someone who's been born again, but yet I know that today that individual will serve me, and then tomorrow he'll turn around and curse me.
SPEAKER_00: He'll sin against me, he'll break his word.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the case with you and I, and with King David and all of God's children, that you and I fail him at times.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Lord says, I change not.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, God doesn't stop loving us because you and I sin against him and you and I mess up.
SPEAKER_00: So the fact that God is unchangeable, and the fact that God has set his love upon you and I as his children means that you and I aren't consumed, even though you and I sin against him and mess up.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Brother Josh, I thought that, you know, because I did a terrible thing, you know, because I sinned against the Lord, because I reverted back to my old habits, then because of that I lost my salvation, no friend.
SPEAKER_00: Your salvation is not dependent on you, because you and I fail all the time.
SPEAKER_00: But God, because he has chosen to set his love on you, he's chosen to redeem you and save you, and he changes not, even though if you get your life off in a ditch and shipwreck your witness, God still loves you.
SPEAKER_00: So God tells us, I change not.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
SPEAKER_00: So, but what does it mean that God doesn't change?
SPEAKER_00: It's exactly that.
SPEAKER_00: That, brothers and sisters, change implies imperfection.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I would venture to tell y'all that I have changed over the course of my life.
SPEAKER_00: There were things and opinions and beliefs that I've had that I no longer hold, that I have been instructed in the scriptures and by other men that know more than I do, and I have changed my beliefs about particular things over the years, and it was because at one time I believed that I was my own Savior because I chose the Lord Jesus Christ when I was nine years old and walked an aisle and prayed a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And I believed that it was as a result of that act of me choosing God and me walking an aisle and me praying prayer that saved my soul to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've come to know and understand that it wasn't me that chose God, it was God that chose me.
SPEAKER_00: It was him that born me again in his Holy Spirit and pranked and literally wrote his law in my heart and in my mind, and he is the one who literally gave me ears to hear and a mind to understand and eyes to see.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, when I was nine years old, that's why I wanted to walk an aisle and pray a prayer, because I was able to understand the preacher, because before that time, my eyes had been opened to see and understand and be pricked by the Holy Spirit, and I felt convicted of my sins, and therefore, what I didn't realize is that God had already born me again and saved me before I ever walked the aisle and prayed prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I was already bound for heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So my mind changed about that understanding and about that knowledge because I held that in ignorance.
SPEAKER_00: I did not understand how all that worked.
SPEAKER_00: And brothers and sisters, this side of heaven, you and I are not perfect people.
SPEAKER_00: But see, change implies imperfection.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you and I can change for the better.
SPEAKER_00: And you and I can change for the worse, right?
SPEAKER_00: You and I can fall into old sins, you and I can become a drunkard, you and I can become an addicted gambler, whatever the case may be, you and I can change for the better, or you and I can change for the worse.
SPEAKER_00: But see, God changes not.
SPEAKER_00: Because God is already perfect.
SPEAKER_00: There is okay, let's put it this way: God's nature does not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's character does not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's perfections do not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's purposes do not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's promises do not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's gifts do not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's mind does not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's will does not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's counsel does not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's decrees do not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's power does not change.
SPEAKER_00: God's hatred of sin does not change.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ said that he was the same yesterday, today, and forever.
SPEAKER_00: If we read about a particular sin in the Bible, well, Brother Josh, you know that old antiquated King James Bible that y'all like to read, that that really doesn't apply today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, no, friend, it does.
SPEAKER_00: Because those same sins that were committed thousands of years ago, that were an abomination to God, are still this very second, God has not changed his mind, his truth, his will, his desires, his decrees.
SPEAKER_00: Not one iota.
SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
SPEAKER_00: But not only that, well, brother Joshua, I see that you know God is a God of judgment, and he is the judge, and he is righteous.
SPEAKER_00: But again, you understand the encouragement in that, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because for I am the Lord, I change not.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
SPEAKER_00: See, even though God still hates the same sins today that he did thousands of years ago, the fact is, is you and I, if you're and I are a born-again child of God, you and I are still saved today, even though that you and I have sinned against him multiple thousands of times since you and I have been born again.
SPEAKER_00: And the fact that God changes not is the fact of the reason why you and I are not consumed.
SPEAKER_00: Because he set his love and choice upon us, and he will never take that back.
SPEAKER_00: His love is unconditional.
SPEAKER_00: So therefore, God's unchangeableness is the foundation of our, he is our rock.
SPEAKER_00: He is our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Brother Josh, I go out there and I mess up all the time and I fail him all the time, but yet he still loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And he will not take back his love from you.
SPEAKER_00: Look at uh James chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna get a couple more scriptures and then we're gonna move on.
SPEAKER_00: In James chapter one, we're gonna begin reading in verse sixteen.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter one, beginning in verse sixteen.
SPEAKER_00: Do not err, my beloved brethren.
SPEAKER_00: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
SPEAKER_00: Now wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see something between the lines.
SPEAKER_00: Why did James write in verse 16, do not err, my beloved brethren?
SPEAKER_00: Every good gift and every perfect gift from above.
SPEAKER_00: Why did he say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because you and I have a tendency to falsely accuse God.
SPEAKER_00: You and I have a tendency to charge God with unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: To say, God, why did you do that?
SPEAKER_00: Or God, why did you allow that?
SPEAKER_00: Or God, why did you not intervene in that?
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this is where we're going when we're going to end up today with Job.
SPEAKER_00: Because Job demanded an answer of God.
SPEAKER_00: Job wanted to know why.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm a righteous man.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible tells us that.
SPEAKER_00: That he tells us that Job was a righteous man, that he eschewed evil, that he he diligently followed after the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He diligently prayed for his children.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord literally put a hedge about him and protected him because he so diligently followed after the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But Job demanded an answer of God.
SPEAKER_00: God, I don't understand that I'm serving you so hard and so diligently, and yet you allowed all this calamity to befall me.
SPEAKER_00: My livestock was stolen and decimated, and the majority of my family was killed.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I don't understand why you would allow those terrible things to happen to good people like me.
SPEAKER_00: That was Job's question.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you see here in the New Testament, in James, that he says, do not err, my beloved brethren.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's writing to Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Christian, don't falsely accuse God.
SPEAKER_00: Don't charge God with doing something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Don't charge God with making a wrong judgment or doing something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Lord, I don't, Lord, I don't understand why you would allow a terrible calamity to befall a good man like me.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, just, you shouldn't have done that.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to lay out your reasons why this happened.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to explain to me why you did that, or if you didn't do it, why you allowed it to happen to me.
SPEAKER_00: And James tells the church, do not err, my beloved brethren.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be tempted to charge God falsely that he's done something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Because then he tells us every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God doesn't change, like we learned in Malachi, that I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18 of James 1 tells us, of his own will, of God's will, begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he's the one who saved us, who made us his children.
SPEAKER_00: God does not change.
SPEAKER_00: So not only does he not change in his character, in his will, but brothers and sisters, his affection does not change toward us.
SPEAKER_00: So God can look at you and I, and God can look, let's say, at a Samson, or God can look at a King David, or God can look at a Mary Magdalene, who was a terrible sinner, and can love us unconditionally, because he set his love on a terrible woman or terrible men like you and I.
SPEAKER_00: So not only does God not change, God is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: God is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Well, brother Josh, I've heard that term all my life.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that God is eternal, you know, the word everlasting could be substituted there.
SPEAKER_00: What does that actually mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means that God does not have a beginning and God does not have an end.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of hard for me to wrap my head around.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at Psalm chapter 90.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm chapter 90.
SPEAKER_00: It talks about the fact that God is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 90.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to begin reading in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 90 and verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
SPEAKER_00: Stop.
SPEAKER_00: So, Brother Josh, you're telling me the God of the Bible was the dwelling place, was the security, was the hope for Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_00: And God is the dwelling place, he is the security, he is the hope for us in 2006, some 6,000 years later.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you're our shelter.
SPEAKER_00: You're our tower.
SPEAKER_00: You're our home in all generations.
SPEAKER_00: Before the mountains were brought forth.
SPEAKER_00: Or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, before the earth was created, you were God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Thou turnest man to destruction, and saith, Return, ye children of men.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: There is something that over the years as a preacher that I have tried to understand, and I don't believe that I still fully understand it, but I will give you a couple of illustrations.
SPEAKER_00: That, you know, the song that we sing, Amazing Grace, and the last line of Amazing Grace, when we've been there 10,000 years, bright, shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all know that in the strictest sense that line of that song is theologically incorrect?
SPEAKER_00: When we've been there 10,000 years?
SPEAKER_00: Now, please don't misunderstand me.
SPEAKER_00: I love that song.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that song conveys a wonderful sentiment, and it's a correct sentiment, but it's partially incorrect.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, Brother Josh?
SPEAKER_00: When we've been there 10,000 years, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the idea is when you and I go to be with God in heaven, and we've and you and I have been dwelling with God in heaven for 10,000 years of time, of elapsed time, that, you know, more time than the earth and all creation has physically existed.
SPEAKER_00: Then at that moment, after that 10,000 years has transpired, at that moment we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we have that much more time and then unlimited time after that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the part of that that's incorrect is this that God exists outside of time.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God is unaffected by time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to pick on Brother Don for a minute there.
SPEAKER_00: Brother Don, you're still a very handsome man, and you still have a full head of hair.
SPEAKER_00: But as I'm looking at Brother Don, his hair, uh, his uh hair matches his shirt.
SPEAKER_00: It's snow white.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I tell my wife and children that uh I'm looking more and more like Doctor Strange off of comic books because he's got those big wide gray stripes on the side of his head because my hair is turning colors.
SPEAKER_00: Uh time has affected me.
SPEAKER_00: Brother John Don, I hope I look as good as you do when I'm your age, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But uh time affects us all, but it does not affect God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it was Augustine that uh wrote that God did not make man in time, God made man in time.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, think about it like this.
SPEAKER_00: That you and I think, well, Bo Josh, you know, some uh 6,000 odd years ago, somewhere in the universal timeline, you know, that at some point God said, This is day one for the universe and for mankind.
SPEAKER_00: But before that, God had existed for you know thousands or millions or billions of years, and then when you and I die and go to be in heaven, and then we'll be there for uh millions and billions of years.
SPEAKER_00: Uh no, friend.
SPEAKER_00: Time, period, did not exist at all until God made it.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like I like to think of it like an image of a man who's holding something in his hand that let's say a woodworker carved out a beautiful little ornament, maybe for a Christmas tree or something, and he carved out a beautiful ornament, and he's holding that ornament in his hand, or that he made it, but it's small.
SPEAKER_00: It's literally just in the palm of his hand, and it's a complete ornament.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's finished it, he's done, it's he's satisfied with his work.
SPEAKER_00: Well, did you know that God there is holding in his theoretical hand not only the earth, not only men on the earth, not only the universe that you and I live in, not only all the universes that he's ever created, but also time itself.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like a little capsule, a little contained thing that see, God is not affected by the time that has affected the universe.
SPEAKER_00: See, when men try to explain how old the earth is and how old the universes are, men don't know any other way to explain it other than a timeline, like a linear timeline.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, a million years ago this happened, and you know, a thousand years ago this happened, and 150 years ago, you know, we have the Civil War, and you know, and 20 years ago we had so-and-so, and men look at this just like a string.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in God's world, this little string, God created the first part of that string and the ending of that string, and God actually exists outside of that and holds that, and this time he is completely unaffected by it.
SPEAKER_00: So when that song talks about when we've been there 10,000 years, actually it's the cessation of time.
SPEAKER_00: Time will cease to be or cease to affect us like it has never affected God.
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all know that, say, since God created everything, God could simultaneously be in the Garden of Eden, and simultaneously be with a soldier in the Civil War, and simultaneously be with you and I in this church right now, and simultaneously be when the Lord Jesus Christ returns and judges the earth, and God not only sees all of that simultaneously, he exists outside of that simultaneously.
SPEAKER_00: But he know, and see, unlike you know mine and your memory is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that all of y'all in this church house over the course of your lifetime, you know, we have very precious memories about our family and our loved ones, you know, but I wish I could remember the conversations that I had with my grandfather and my grandmother.
SPEAKER_00: I only remember little snippets of those things, right?
SPEAKER_00: I remember my grandfather or my grandmother telling me this or telling me that thing.
SPEAKER_00: Well, see, to God, brothers and sisters, the conversation that he had with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, it's like it was literally yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: Like, do y'all do I I remember some of the conversations that I had with my wife and children yesterday?
SPEAKER_00: Because a thousand years is with the Lord as a day.
SPEAKER_00: So less than last week.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if the earth is about 6,000 years old according to the creation account, less than, in other words, just like just last Saturday, the Lord created Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_00: And all of time.
SPEAKER_00: God exists outside of that.
SPEAKER_00: He is unaffected by that.
SPEAKER_00: His hair does not turn gray.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't affect him like it affects you and I.
SPEAKER_00: God is without beginning and without end.
SPEAKER_00: God is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: He is from everlasting to everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: Look at uh Deuteronomy chapter thirty-three.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy chapter thirty-three.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start moving pretty quick here.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy chapter thirty-three.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse twenty-seven.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy thirty-three, twenty-seven says, The eternal God is thy refuge.
SPEAKER_00: And underneath are the everlasting arms.
SPEAKER_00: And he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee and shall say, Destroy them.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to notice that the everlasting God is thy refuge.
SPEAKER_00: We've already talked about that God is unchangeable, and because he doesn't change, that is the basis for our foundation, for our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He is our rock.
SPEAKER_00: God is eternal, and that means he is our refuge.
SPEAKER_00: He is our home, he is our dwelling place.
SPEAKER_00: Because he doesn't change, and because he is eternal, it means he is our refuge.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was asked in the New Testament by some of the Pharisees, and he told them, uh He said, Before Abraham was, I am.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says in John chapter 8, verse 59, they took up stones to cast at him.
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all know that when uh, because Jesus had told the Pharisees, he said, Your father Abraham trusted in me, and he rejoiced to see my day coming?
SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees said, Jesus, we don't understand what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: You're, you know, you're not even 50 years old.
SPEAKER_00: You're in your uh early 30s.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, our father Abraham, who is a patriarch among the Jews and thousands of years older than we are when he had this conversation with the Pharisees in the New Testament?
SPEAKER_00: He said, What do you mean, Father Abraham, rejoiced to see your day?
SPEAKER_00: And that's when he told them.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Before Abraham was, I am.
SPEAKER_00: What he was telling them was several things.
SPEAKER_00: He was telling them that I am the Messiah, I am the Son of God, I am the one mentioned in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And then when he says, before Abraham was, I am, the Bible says distinctly, and y'all go look it up.
SPEAKER_00: For time's sake, I'm not, it's John 8.59.
SPEAKER_00: It says, and they took up stones to cast at him.
SPEAKER_00: Brother Ish, you're telling me that after Jesus told the Pharisees, before Abraham was I am, all those men literally took up stones and they wanted to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they understood exactly what he was saying.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what was he saying?
SPEAKER_00: He was telling them that he was part of the Godhead, that he was equal with God.
SPEAKER_00: Because we learn in the Old Testament, in uh Exodus chapter 3, verse 13 and 14, that when Moses went before God and he said, You know, Lord, you've called me to deliver these people out of Egypt, and uh and when I come and tell them who you are, uh, who do I need to tell them your name is?
SPEAKER_00: You know, how do I describe you to the people?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, tell them, I am that I am.
SPEAKER_00: That's Exodus chapter 3, verse 13 and 14.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Tell them this is my name.
SPEAKER_00: I am that I am.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what that means?
SPEAKER_00: It means I exist.
SPEAKER_00: But that was God's proper name or an explanation of who he was.
SPEAKER_00: He said, when people, you know, how do you describe God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you make him like a mountain?
SPEAKER_00: Do you make him like a powerful creature?
SPEAKER_00: You know, do you know?
SPEAKER_00: You tell them, I am that I am.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm God, I exist.
SPEAKER_00: So in the New Testament, when Jesus told these Pharisees that your patriarch Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and they said, wait a minute, you're only a man who's something 30-something years old, you're not even 50 yet.
SPEAKER_00: How is it that our patriarch Abraham rejoiced to see your day?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Because before Abraham was, I am.
SPEAKER_00: He used the proper name of God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he was telling them, before Abraham was even born in this world, I existed.
SPEAKER_00: See that?
SPEAKER_00: And then they took up stones, they wanted to kill the man.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they fully understood what he was talking about.
SPEAKER_00: They understood that this man was claiming to be equal with God, to be the son of God, to be the Messiah of God, and they hated him for that.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, he is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he is, I am.
SPEAKER_00: He is God made flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is part of the Godhead, and he was before Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says that everything was created that was created, the Lord used the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So all those things are true.
SPEAKER_00: But God is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: I want to get one more verse and we're going to wrap this up.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get our last point.
SPEAKER_00: Look very quickly at Psalm 100.
SPEAKER_00: I know y'all know this is one of my favorite Psalms, but there's one little thing I've overlooked in talking about this Psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 100, the last verse, verse 5, says, For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations.
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all know that again, this unchangeable God who is our rock, this eternal God who is our refuge, and the reason why the sons of Jacob are not consumed is right here, Psalm 100, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: His mercy is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: It has no beginning, it has no end.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, even though you and I are sinners, you and I are not consumed because God is eternally merciful to you and I.
SPEAKER_00: And also, you and I can still do science today because gravity hasn't changed.
SPEAKER_00: Because not only is his biblical truth still true, but the truth of nature and the truth of physics and the truth of science, it says here, and his truth endureth to all generations.
SPEAKER_00: God is unchanging.
SPEAKER_00: God is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, his mercy, his goodness, his salvation, his truth is unchanging, and his mercy to us endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: Last point.
SPEAKER_00: God is self-existent.
SPEAKER_00: This is the one that I wanted to get to.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It almost sounds wrong.
SPEAKER_00: God is self-existent.
SPEAKER_00: We usually don't use the word self in regard to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's you and I are selfish.
SPEAKER_00: God is selfless.
SPEAKER_00: But what does it mean that God is self-existence?
SPEAKER_00: It means that his being depends on nothing and no one else.
SPEAKER_00: There is a word, the word is a seety.
SPEAKER_00: A seety.
SPEAKER_00: The definition of that word means originating from and having no origin other than itself.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God is.
SPEAKER_00: God does not need you, and God does not need me.
SPEAKER_00: But you and I need him even to breathe or exist and to have mercy and to have grace and to have knowledge and to literally not be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: You and I need God, but God does not need you and I at all.
SPEAKER_00: At all, ever.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's God.
SPEAKER_00: If God needed anything or anyone, he would not be qualified to be God.
SPEAKER_00: God is self-existent.
SPEAKER_00: I am that I am.
SPEAKER_00: Look at uh Paul in Acts chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all will remember this is the uh Paul when he was debating, or rather preaching to intellectuals on Mars Hill, when he was telling them about the one true and living God, in Acts chapter 17, beginning in verse 22, when all of these philosophers, he was looking at all their devotions that they had carved out there in stone, and he says in Acts chapter 17, beginning in verse 22, we read.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all were so worried about not making devotions to everybody that y'all made this one little idol over here, and it says to the unknown God is a catch-all in case you miss some.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul used that as a springboard to explain to them about the one true and living God.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm fixing to tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_00: God, verse 24, that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there's not anything that you did to put God here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you made all these fancy-looking devotions and idols and things, and you think this is the place that you come and bow down and worship, and God needed your help to be worshipped.
SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't need you.
SPEAKER_00: He does not dwell in temples made with hands.
SPEAKER_00: Neither is worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things.
SPEAKER_00: God is the creator, he is the origin of life itself.
SPEAKER_00: God is the maker of life.
SPEAKER_00: I I want to explain something real quick.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us, even in the book of Job, that when God made creation and he made man and he made the universe and he put the stars into place and he put man on the earth, it tells us that the angels, see, God had already created them, because see, angels were created celestial beings, and then God made the physical earth and man terrestrial beings that had a dual nature.
SPEAKER_00: But the angels were present to see God make all the things, because he made them before he made the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And it says that the angels rejoiced in the book of Job to see God make all these things.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I want you to think about that for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: See, you understand that Satan was a fallen angel, right?
SPEAKER_00: So God made Satan as just one of the angels, one among millions or thousands.
SPEAKER_00: And Satan was a created thing like you and I are, you understand?
SPEAKER_00: So I've mentioned before that you and I are like a little sinful grain of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Well, those angels were like righteous grains of sin.
SPEAKER_00: But there was one bad grain of sin, Satan.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, God knew that before he ever created him.
SPEAKER_00: Satan didn't mess up God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to see is that people want to make Satan equal with God.
SPEAKER_00: And Satan is just one little fallen angelic grain of sin that's wagging his fist at God and saying, God, I don't want to agree with you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be like you.
SPEAKER_00: And Satan was actually present to see God make everything.
SPEAKER_00: Satan knows that he doesn't hold a candle to God's authority or power.
SPEAKER_00: And Satan knows, and all the demons know that God is their creator, you understand.
SPEAKER_00: They have more knowledge spiritually than you and I do.
SPEAKER_00: But yet they chose to rebel.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, how brazen are they?
SPEAKER_00: The grain of sand wagging its fist at the creator of all the universe.
SPEAKER_00: Satan is not equal with God.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he's a terrible foe for you and I, but he's a nothingness in comparison to God.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul tells them, God, verse 25, is neither worship with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things.
SPEAKER_00: He hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell in all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed under the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far off from every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: For in him, verse 28, we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring, Lords, He's our creator, he's our Maker.
SPEAKER_00: For as much then as we are of the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone or graven by art and man's device.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, if you understand that God made you, you need to understand that God is not like any of those things that you make.
SPEAKER_00: He's totally different.
SPEAKER_00: In the times of his ignorance, God winked at.
SPEAKER_00: In the times of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
SPEAKER_00: All of these things that we've been talking about, what God is, that God is spirit, God is invisible, God is light, he is unpolluted, that God is infinite, God is unchangeable, God is eternal, God is self-existent.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that you and I are none of those things?
SPEAKER_00: But yet you and I try really, really hard to make God like us, right?
SPEAKER_00: Don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to make God like me and think like me and do like me, and I want to bend God's ear and I want God to coalesce to my will and do what I tell him to do.
SPEAKER_00: God is not like us.
SPEAKER_00: We in a very, very small way are like God.
SPEAKER_00: God, because he chose to create us in his image.
SPEAKER_00: But God is not like us.
SPEAKER_00: In closing.
SPEAKER_00: Turn if we will to Job chapter thirty-eight.
SPEAKER_00: Job chapter thirty-eight.
SPEAKER_00: This is where it gets real interesting.
SPEAKER_00: So God is self-existent.
SPEAKER_00: He is the source, he is the origin, he is a creator.
SPEAKER_00: He sustains uh he is life.
SPEAKER_00: He sustains all things, all creatures, all systems.
SPEAKER_00: And him having no origin himself, he alone decides.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing hinders his will.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's talk about Job.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know the story of Job, at least in part.
SPEAKER_00: Job was a godly man, Job was a righteous man.
SPEAKER_00: Job was diligently serving the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then Satan came and questioned the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that did not transpire in a heavenly throne room.
SPEAKER_00: That interaction when it says that Satan came to present himself with the sons of God.
SPEAKER_00: You know where he did that?
SPEAKER_00: On the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Because Satan would not have been permitted to stand in the presence of God in the heavenly throne room, because the very angel, the very holy angels themselves, have to cover themselves in the presence of an almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: So when some people have concluded that Satan went up to heaven and presented himself with the sons of God before God in the heavenly throne room, that is not the case.
SPEAKER_00: You and I actually are presenting ourselves to God today, right now in this church house.
SPEAKER_00: Are you and I not?
SPEAKER_00: We are coming before the Lord, saying, Lord, I beseech you, Lord, I have come bringing my physical body and my mind and my energy and my soul before you.
SPEAKER_00: I am presenting myself with the church house, assembled with the church in order to praise you, in order to worship you.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore, in Job, when it says that Satan came presenting himself with the sons of God, where did he do that?
SPEAKER_00: On the earth, not in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Because if Satan were to attempt to try to come before the throne room of God, he would immediately be annihilated because of the holiness of God and because Satan is pure pollution and sin and wickedness.
SPEAKER_00: He would be destroyed in the presence of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, you know what Satan did?
SPEAKER_00: He slinked his way into a church meeting.
SPEAKER_00: He came to church that Sunday with the sons of God and said, Oh, goody me, I get to play in the church house when all the sons of God are gathered together in order to present themselves to God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I'm coming to play amongst the church folks.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what he did.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said, Have you considered my servant Job?
SPEAKER_00: Not Satan.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said, Satan, have you considered my servant Job?
SPEAKER_00: And Satan said, Yeah, I know who Job is.
SPEAKER_00: And I can't do anything to him.
SPEAKER_00: Because God, you've built a hedge about him.
SPEAKER_00: You've put up a wall around Job because he's a righteous man, because he serves you, because he's diligent in prayer and in offering and in generosity, and he serves you.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore I can't touch him because you haven't let me touch him.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Okay, I'm going to drop the hedge.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't do anything to him.
SPEAKER_00: So he destroyed his livestock and he took away a lot of his wealth, and his family was decimated, and his children were killed, and Job's conclusion.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Job's wife said, And then Satan said, Well, God, you know that a man will give everything he has for his health.
SPEAKER_00: God said, Okay, you can make him sick.
SPEAKER_00: You can cover him from head to foot, but you cannot take his life.
SPEAKER_00: You can stricken him, so he is in grievous amounts of pain.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't take his life.
SPEAKER_00: But he's gonna hurt.
SPEAKER_00: And so much so that his wife said, basically, the Lord's abandoned you, you just need to curse God and die.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, You speak as one of the foolish women.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: However, Job did have one problem.
SPEAKER_00: What was that?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said, God, I just want to know.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I want you to answer me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a righteous man.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a good man.
SPEAKER_00: I've done all the things you asked me to do.
SPEAKER_00: Why, God?
SPEAKER_00: Why, God, did you let this happen to me?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I want to answer.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I want you to answer me.
SPEAKER_00: You know what God's answer was?
SPEAKER_00: That God does not owe you an explanation.
SPEAKER_00: God did not owe Job an explanation.
SPEAKER_00: And God does not owe you and I an explanation.
SPEAKER_00: Of why.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, Brother Josh?
SPEAKER_00: You know what God's answer to Job was?
SPEAKER_00: When Job was saying, Lord, I've suffered much.
SPEAKER_00: I've suffered much calamity.
SPEAKER_00: And I've tried to serve you.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I just want to know why.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord told him.
SPEAKER_00: Job chapter 38.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind and said, verse 1, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Job, who are you to demand an answer from me when you don't know anything?
SPEAKER_00: You don't know why I did this to you or allowed this to be done to you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have my mind and my judgments, and you don't have my purity of judgment and thought.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have my will and my motivations and my understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the Lord's answer to Job was, Job, who do you think you are to demand an answer from Almighty God?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
SPEAKER_00: An ignorant, sinful grain of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Gird up now thy loins like a man, Job, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God says, You don't get an answer from me, and you don't get to demand anything from me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Job, I will ask an answer from you, and will demand an answer from you, and you will answer me.
SPEAKER_00: Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
SPEAKER_00: Declare if thou hast understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Job, were you there when I created man and time and the universe and the cosmos?
SPEAKER_00: When I spoke into the darkness and created life?
SPEAKER_00: Where were you?
SPEAKER_00: You didn't exist.
SPEAKER_00: You were an uncreated human being, terrestrial man, whom later in life I chose to bless beyond measure?
SPEAKER_00: Who has laid the measure thereof?
SPEAKER_00: If thou knowest?
SPEAKER_00: Who has stretched the line upon it?
SPEAKER_00: How do you make gravity work and the universe work and the sun, the earth rotate around the sun?
SPEAKER_00: How does all that work?
SPEAKER_00: And even today, how do you how do you make matter out of nothing?
SPEAKER_00: And why is it that scientists today, the most intellectual among us, can still not even understand how atoms are held together?
SPEAKER_00: Tell me if you know.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6, whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?
SPEAKER_00: Or who has laid the cornerstone thereof?
SPEAKER_00: How is everything buckled together and built?
SPEAKER_00: When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
SPEAKER_00: That's literally when the angels witnessed God create everything.
SPEAKER_00: And literally the angels bowed down and praise to God.
SPEAKER_00: God, you're doing magnificent and wonderful things that we don't even understand.
SPEAKER_00: And then again, by the way, when else did the angels show up?
SPEAKER_00: At the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, when God Himself chose to coalesce and condescend and become a man, and all the angels came and they praised God and said, God, you are doing things so wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: It's so magnificent that all the angels of heaven bow down in awe and wonder.
SPEAKER_00: Job, tell me if you were there.
SPEAKER_00: And then God comes down.
SPEAKER_00: You go back, please read those last chapters of Job.
SPEAKER_00: In verse chapter 39, it says, He told Job, Knowest thou, verse chapter 39, knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth?
SPEAKER_00: Or canst thou mark when the hinds do calf?
SPEAKER_00: Canst thou number the months that they fulfill, or knowest thou the time when they bring forth, they bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows, their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn, they go forth and return unto them.
SPEAKER_00: What does that even mean?
SPEAKER_00: God was telling Job, he says, he's literally telling him, I know and am part of, and see when every single wild animal on the earth gives birth, in the midst of the highest mountain, when the mountain goat gives birth to her young, and when the little creature in the middle of the rainforest comes into birth or existence.
SPEAKER_00: Job, are you there when that happens?
SPEAKER_00: No, you're not, because you're a man, because you're not everywhere at the same time like I am.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm literally sustaining the mountain goat and the creature and you all at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: And the angels literally bow down and worship the Lord and his great power.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what Job's response was?
SPEAKER_00: When the Lord, when Job was saying, Lord, yes, you're a good God.
SPEAKER_00: And Job didn't sin against God and his actions, but he said, God, I just I just demand of you an answer.
SPEAKER_00: You answer me why all this calamity befell of me?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord says, I don't have to give you an answer.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, Job, I demand an answer of you.
SPEAKER_00: Where were you when I did all these things?
SPEAKER_00: And after the Lord told him all that, you know what Job's response was?
SPEAKER_00: Verse chapter 40.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?
SPEAKER_00: He that reproveth God, let him answer it.
SPEAKER_00: And Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am vile.
SPEAKER_00: What shall I answer thee?
SPEAKER_00: I will lay my hand upon my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Job says, God, I'm gonna shut up now.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I don't have a right to demand anything from you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I'm just thankful that I'm your child and that you're merciful to me and that and that I exist and you've turned your favor to me.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: If I was destroyed today, amen to praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That was Job's response when God showed up.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I don't deserve an answer from God, and God doesn't have to answer me.
SPEAKER_00: But I do have to answer to God.
SPEAKER_00: See, brothers and sisters, modern Christianity thinks that God exists to serve us, and it's the other way around.
SPEAKER_00: You and I exist to serve God, and we need to get that right in our theology.
SPEAKER_00: Last verse, and we're done.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so sorry I ran over our time, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all are very preaching, and you have a long-winded preacher that can't get his thoughts together.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, the honor and glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Glory be to God.
SPEAKER_00: We in a any bitty part are like God.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, but God is not like us.
SPEAKER_00: Praise be to the King.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this has been an encouragement to you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask Brother Don if he would help us close in a word of song.
SPEAKER_00: The church doors are always open if you desire to unite with the membership of our church.