The Preeminence and Self-Existence of God

2. We have the incredible opportunity over these few weeks to ‘go hard after God’

3. We have the chance, each week in this class to study and to focus and to think diligently about our Maker.

4. Before we can speak about the attributes of God, as it pertains to His character or His nature… we must speak about God as He exists in His being.

5. Last week we saw that two of the most important aspects of the being of God is that He is triuneand eternal.

6. This week we are going to look at two other very important aspects to the being of God, which are discussed much less...

7. Preeminent & Self-Existent

8. Let’s attempt to DEFINE & DEFEND these attributes…

9. Just as we saw last week, it is nearly impossible to separate the preeminence of God from His self-existence or self-sufficiency, so the two attributes will blend closely together.

10. PREEMINENT Matchless Set Apart Solitariness Above all else Before all else Supreme Beyond all things

11. Self-ExistenT Independent Never in need Self-Sufficient Depends on nothing Uncaused Transcendent

12. First, when we say that God is preeminent we mean that: He is supremeand He is before and above everything and everyone else in all ways.

13. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.Colossians 1:16-17

14. Second, when we say that God is preeminent we mean that: He has always been, is, and always will be greater in every way than the full sumof everything and everyone else that ever exists.

15. Third, when we say that God is preeminent we mean that: He existedbefore all things and His existence before all things is the only thing that allows there to be anything else.

16. For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Romans 11:36

17. Fourth, when we say that God is preeminent we mean that: He has no origin, yet everything outsideof Himself has its origin from Him.

18. 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

19. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:3

20. Fifth, when we say that God is preeminent we mean that: God is solitaryin all of His attributes. He alone possess them to the full, to the infinite degree of perfection. He alone is God, He alone is before all. He alone is Ruler, Creator & Sustainer.

21. For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.Psalm 86:10

22. No one is like you, LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.Jeremiah 10:6

23. First, when we say that God is Self-Existent we mean that: He depends on nothing, yet every other thing depends on Him, fully.

24. Second, when we say that God is Self-Existent we mean that: He is in need of nothing, yet every other thing needs Him, completely.

25. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Acts 17:24-25

26. For in him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28

27. I will not accept a bull from your house... For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. Psalm 50:9-12

28. Third, when we say that God is Self-Existent we mean that: Whatever God is, and all that God is; He is in Himself, fully. There is nothing needed or required by Him outside of Himself.

29. "In the beginning, God." There was no heaven, where His glory is now particularly manifested.

30. There were no angels to hymn His praises; no universe to be upheld by the word of His power.

31. There was nothing, no one, but God; and that, not for a day, a year, or an age, but "from everlasting."

32. During a past eternity, God was alone: self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied; in need of nothing.

33. Had a universe, had angels, had human beings been necessary to Him in any way, they also had been called into existence from all eternity.

34. The creating of them when He did, added nothing to God essentially. He changes not, therefore His essential glory can be neither augmented nor diminished.

35. God was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create. That He chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on His part, caused by nothing outside Himself, determined by nothing but His own mere good pleasure;

36. …for He "works all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11). That He did create was simply for the manifestation of His glory.

37. “God has no origin and it is precisely this concept of no-origin which distinguishes ‘that-which-is-God’ from what is not God.” A.W. Tozer

38. The Preeminence of God Origin is a word that can apply only to things that have been created. When we think of anything that has origin, we are not thinking of God.

39. The Preeminence of God All else God No beginning, no end! No growth, no change! A beginning, an end! Much growth, much change!

40. The preeminence of God tells us that there is One who is; the cause of all but is Himself causedby none!

41. The preeminence of God tells us that there is One who is; accountableto none… but to whom all must give account.

42. The self-existence of God tells us that there is One who is; in need of nothing… and One to whom all are in need of…for everything…

43. The self-existence of God tells us that there is One who is; independent of everything… and One to whom all are in full dependence of.

44. The human mind, being created, has an understandable uneasiness about the Uncreated.

45. We do not find it comfortable to allow for the presence of One who is wholly outside of the circle of our familiar knowledge.

46. We tend to be disquieted by the thought of One who does not account to us for His being…

47. …One who is responsible to no one, who is self-existent, self-independent, and self-sufficient.

48. “To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess…

49. …so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him...

50. Yet how He eludes us! For He is everywhere while He is nowhere, for “where” has to do with matter and space, and God is independent of both.