None Greater

Sunday, October 29^th, 2023

Acts 17:16-33

Introduction

AW Tozer said, “What comes into our minds, when we think of God is the most important thing about us!”

God is God and Has No Needs

1. God Is Creator

v.24 – “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth…”

The Apostle Paul basically quotes Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…”

The aseity of God is His attribute of independent self-existence. The aseity of God means that He is the One in whom all other things find their source, existence, and continuance. He is the source of all things, the One who originated everything and who sustains everything that exists. He is the ever-present Power that sustains all life.

Aseity comes from the Latin a se, which means “from himself” or “of himself.”

“For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me” Isaiah 46:9

God is the eternally self-existent Being who always was and always will be. The aseity of God is related to His complete independence. God has no need. He is complete in and of Himself and always has been.

The Apostle Paul continues, “…does not live in temples made by men, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself give to all mankind life and breath and everything…”

“God is infinitely happy in the enjoyment of himself, in perfectly beholding and infinitely loving, and rejoicing in, his own essence and perfections.” J. Edwards

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Psalm 90:2

God’s aseity assures us that His autonomy is absolute. He alone decides what to do, and nothing can ever thwart His purpose to keep His promises. What He promises to do, He will do. What He predicts will come to pass.

“…’My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.” Isaiah 46:10,11

Why would a self-sufficient God create the human race? We are an expression of God’s love, made in His own image, and He breathed His very breath of life into us. 

How has the Self-Sufficient God revealed Himself to man?
God has revealed Himself to man through the Bible and by the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ—God with us, come in the flesh. 

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: the things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers of rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy, For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:15-20

1. God Is Judge

v.30,31 – “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by  raising him from the dead.”

“Fallen human beings will go to every extreme possible to banish God as their judge.” RC Sproul 

Repent – to change one’s mind or change direction/lifestyle and follow Jesus

Repentance is at the heart of the gospel call. Unless we are preaching repentance we are not preaching the gospel our Lord has charged us to preach.

Judgement – Mankind is not headed to extinction, but to judgement!

God, who created all men, must be the Judge of all men, and "the Judge of all the earth" will certainly "do right.”

Jesus’ resurrection is the proof of judgement coming! His sacrifice was acceptable to God.