“Aseity" 6-12-22
Overview
The Aseity of God: He Simply Is
Some words are rarely spoken, and aseity is one of them—yet it names one of the most foundational truths about God. Aseity means that God exists from Himself. He has no cause, no source outside Himself, no dependency on anything or anyone. When Moses stood before the burning bush and asked what name he should give the Israelites, God answered, "I AM WHO I AM... say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you'" Exodus 3:13-14. At first hearing, that name might sound thin. In reality, it communicates the full weight of God's being: He exists simply because He is.
Scripture echoes this truth elsewhere. Jesus says, "the Father has life in himself" John 5:26. Because God's existence comes from Himself, He is absolutely self-sufficient and depends on nothing. He is not assembled from parts that could come apart; He is His attributes. That is why John can write simply, "God is love" 1 John 4:8. God is wisdom, God is knowledge, God is perfect—wholly and indivisibly so. If God depended on anything outside Himself, our confidence in Him would always be shadowed by worry about whatever He depended upon. But because He depends on no one, our trust in Him can be unshaken.
We are tempted, however, to imagine that aseity is something we share. We tell ourselves that we are self-made, self-sufficient, dependable, unbreakable—that whatever we have achieved we owe to our own ingenuity. One word fits that thinking: taradiddle—pretentious nonsense. A single phone call in the night, a single diagnosis, reminds us how fragile we truly are. We are not self-existent; we are creatures, sustained moment by moment by the God who simply is.
The good news is that the great I AM did not stay hidden in a burning bush. Jesus declared, "before Abraham was, I am" John 8:58—and His hearers reached for stones because they understood the claim. The same I AM tells us, "I am the light of the world," "I am the door," "I am the good shepherd," "I am the resurrection and the life" John 11:25. And this self-existent God went to the cross, the innocent for the guilty, bearing every sin—including our prideful pretense that we share His aseity—and saying to us, I forgive you. Knowing the God who simply is, we discover both the joy of understanding who He truly is and a renewed confidence in our reliance upon Him.
Transcript
What you open your Bibles, please, with me, to the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, 3s
if you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that on page 47 for 8s
our study this morning, Exodus 3 chapter, page 47 in a Pew edition of Holy Scripture. 13s
There are many words that simply are not used very often. 21s
I think for example of the word, embox, embox. 28s
It simply means to put something in a container. 33s
I have never ever used that word. 38s
I've always simply said, I need to put that in a box. 42s
I have never said, I need to embox the gift, not once. 46s
There's the word, Geminate. 54s
When you sort your socks, you're geminating. 58s
I have never said, with my socks laid out on the Ottoman as it comes out of the dryer. 64s
I have never said, and now I'm going to Geminate My Sox. 70s
Snatchy. 78s
You ever use that word? 79s
Simply means an interruption in something. 81s
Never use that word. 84s
Or seeing a bird build a nest. 86s
Have you ever said, that is mighty, fine, notification going on. 90s
The notification is the technique that birds use to build a nest. 96s
Words that are hardly ever used today. 106s
We start a new sermon series. 115s
It's going to extend until the end of August. 117s
And week after week, we're going to take a look at one attribute of God. 119s
My prayer for this series is that the little descriptive line will indeed be reality. 130s
The joy in understanding who He is. 137s
And so in these weeks ahead, we're going to take a look at the glory of God and his 144s
grandeur. 151s
We're going to take a look at His complexity with an attribute week after week after 152s
week because the scriptures reveal who He is and there is joy in understanding who He is. 159s
And so today, I want to start with a word and attribute of God that is hardly ever 172s
used and it's this word. 184s
A Cete, a Cete, the A Cete of God to examine that attribute of God and specifically 189s
that word. 208s
I turn to Exodus 3rd chapter. 211s
Now just a little bit of background there. 214s
Moses, of course, is an incredibly important figure in Scripture, incredibly important. 216s
By the time the people get to Egypt, they are numbering in the hundreds of thousands by 223s
the time they get there. 228s
And to remember the promise that God had made to Abraham and Sarah that through them would 231s
come this great nation and out of this nation is going to come the Messiah. 236s
So by the time they come to Egypt, just as God has said, 241s
they are a great nation. 246s
The king dies replaced by another king who is very threatened by the sheer number of the 250s
Hebrews. 259s
And so He orders the people to be enslaved and He orders that the baby Hebrew boys should 262s
be put to death. 271s
His mother hides him for three months. 277s
Then she takes him down and puts him in the reads by the river. 280s
Moses is discovered by Pharaoh's daughter and winds up growing up in the palace. 285s
But one day, Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and Moses kills the Egyptian. 291s
He then becomes a fugitive and he winds up tending sheep. 308s
But God is not done with Moses. 314s
There is Moses tending the sheep and Moses sees a bush that is burning but the bush is 322s
not consumed. 328s
That grabs Moses's attention. 330s
And so He wants to see. 332s
Why is it that this bush can be a flame but the bush is not consumed? 333s
And God calls out of the bush and tells Moses that Moses is going to be the one that 339s
leads the people out of Egypt as God propels them to the promised land. 347s
And as part of Moses's response, he says this, look, please at verse 13. 356s
But Moses said to God, if I come to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your 364s
ancestors has sent me to you and they ask me, what is His name? 372s
What shall I say to them? 379s
Verse 14, God said to Moses, I am who I am. 382s
He said, further, thus you shall say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. 389s
Isn't that an interesting response? 401s
Interesting response that God says, tell them that my name is I am and not to be critical 406s
here. 417s
But don't you think God perhaps could have come up with something a little weightier 418s
than that? 423s
Instead of simply communicating that His name is, He is. 426s
Couldn't God have done just frankly better than I am? 430s
What is response? 441s
His name communicates the greatness of Himself. 444s
Verse 14, again, second part. 455s
He said, further, thus you shall say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. 458s
God exists simply because He is. 471s
God exists simply because He is. 482s
There is no cause of God. 491s
Scripture puts it this way, in John 5, the Father has life in Himself. 495s
He exists simply because He is. 504s
That means then that He is absolutely self-sufficient. 507s
He is absolutely dependent upon nothing and no one. 514s
Because if God who simply exists because He is was dependent on someone or something, 522s
that would shake our confidence in God, wouldn't it? 533s
Because now we would then worry about that which God was dependent upon. 538s
Whether that would be faithful, if God was depending on something other than Himself. 544s
He exists simply because He is. 553s
He is absolutely self-sufficient. 559s
He is not dependent upon anything or anyone. 562s
God is not composed of parts because if God were composed of parts, then He would be dependent 570s
upon the parts. 580s
If God were composed of parts, then He could fall apart. 583s
Right? 590s
God is His attributes. 595s
That's why the Scripture says in 1 John 4, God is love. 599s
God is wisdom. 608s
God is all knowledge. 609s
God is all perfect. 612s
On and on, down, the list. 615s
God said to Moses, I am who I am. 619s
He said further. 623s
Thus, He shall say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. 624s
His existence is from Himself. 632s
He is absolutely self-sufficient. 635s
He is dependent upon no one and nothing. 639s
His existence comes from Himself. 642s
He is self-sufficient. 645s
He is dependent upon nothing and no one. 647s
Ah, guess what word that is. 652s
A C-a-t. 658s
A C-a-t. 661s
That word with regard to God, that's hardly ever used. 665s
A C-a-t. 674s
Terradittle. 683s
Terradittle. 686s
That's another one of those words that are hardly ever used. 689s
Terradittle. 693s
Terradittle means pretentious nonsense. 695s
It can also mean just a lie. 702s
Terradittle. 708s
We can be tempted to think that the characteristics of God's acity are characteristics 713s
that we share also. 725s
And to that, we must say. 734s
Terradittle. 740s
Terradittle. 743s
We can be tempted to think that we have our existence from ourselves. 745s
You know that turn into pride where we can be tempted to think that we're just these self-created 753s
individuals and all that we have and all that we are and all we've achieved has simply 762s
come from our own ingenuity and our own hard work. 767s
We can be tempted to think God for creating us. 774s
But after he created us, look God at what I made of myself as we focus in that somehow 777s
everything comes from our self-existence and to that, the only word that can apply is simply 784s
to say, oh, that's just Terradittle. 790s
Terradittle. 794s
We can be tempted to think that we're self-sufficient and dependent upon no one. 796s
That well, maybe every now and then we might have to turn to the Lord for some extra measure 808s
of strength. 813s
But by and large, we're able to pretty much handle everything. 813s
We're self-sufficient. 817s
We're dependent upon no one including God. 818s
Terradittle. 824s
Terradittle. 826s
We can be tempted to think that we just can't fall apart because we're tough. 830s
Whatever comes our way, we're going to meet it with toughness. 841s
We can't fall apart. 848s
Others fall apart. 850s
We don't fall apart. 851s
And yet one phone call in the middle of the night or one diagnosis that's given. 857s
And we are reminded of how absolutely fragile life is and we are. 872s
The temptation for us is to think that we share the characteristics of God's 890s
a city. 904s
And that is just pretentious nonsense. 908s
It's just Terradittle. 919s
Terradittle. 924s
And to our pinchant for believing the Terradittle, what do we hear from God? 928s
John 8th chapter. 944s
Jesus' accused of having a demon. 947s
Ponder that for a moment. 952s
And then they turned to Jesus and say, who do you claim to be? 957s
Ponder that for a moment. 963s
But as part of the conversation, Jesus turns and says, very truly, I tell you, before Abraham 967s
was I am. 975s
Do you remember what their reaction was to that? 984s
They picked up stones to kill him because they knew exactly what he was saying exactly 988s
what he was saying. 997s
They knew that Jesus was saying I am God in the flesh. 998s
When he turns and says very truly, I tell you before Abraham was I am. 1007s
They started looking for the stones. 1013s
But you see, we see in Scripture time and time again the Lord Jesus Christ saying I am. 1019s
And then he follows it with the light. 1027s
I am and then he says the door. 1033s
I am the shepherd. 1038s
I am the resurrection and the life. 1042s
And the Lord Jesus Christ, the great I am, goes to the cross and bears the sin of the world, 1047s
all of it. 1055s
In all of its complexity and ugliness, he bears all of our sin thought. 1056s
We have done what we have done, what we have said, what we have left unsaid, when we should 1062s
have said something, he bears all of that sin upon himself for giving us, shedding his 1069s
blood, the innocent for the guilty. 1078s
He takes all of the sin upon him, including the tereidel of us thinking that we share in 1081s
the characteristics of God's a deity. 1101s
And he says to us, I forgive you. 1110s
The question usually comes, doesn't it? 1125s
Usually comes from the little ones in that wonderful and glorious stage where they're just 1130s
a human waterfall of why questions that just continually gets everyone around them wet with their 1139s
curiosity. 1152s
And amidst all of those wonderful, why questions, there will come the who question, where 1155s
they turn to you and they say, well, who created God? 1166s
You can't obviously turn to them with the one word answer at that level and say, ah, 1180s
a deity. 1188s
But that's the issue, isn't it? 1191s
That's at the heart of the question. 1194s
The characteristic of a deity. 1200s
My prayer as we go through the series, the summer, is that by the grace of God, we will 1207s
indeed, we will indeed discover the joy of understanding Him, all of the glory, all of 1215s
the grand here, all of that complexity. 1226s
That will have a fuller and the deeper understanding of who God is. 1231s
And as we discover who God is by examining attribute after attribute, we will discover how 1238s
different God is from us. 1247s
And that will invoke a new found confidence of our reliance upon Him. 1252s
And so let's start with a word that's hardly ever used. 1265s
Right out of the shoot, let's go here. 1272s
And may we add to our vocabulary and our conversation, this attribute of God, a deity, his 1276s
glorious, great, a deity. 1299s