Welcome to “Learning and Living the God-centered life”
Carmel Baptist Church
www.learningandlivingtheword.com
September 12, 2010
Kay Jones and the 2x4 ministry
Creation - Fall - Redemption - Restoration
Doctrine Doctrine Doctrine Doctrine
of God of man of Christ of faith
The plan of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is about
God’s redemption of mankind
The Plan of the Bible
Roots in
Genesis New Testament
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Creation - Fall - Redemption - Restoration
The Bible is mostly in a narrative language that shows us that God
is headed to an end. It is God’s unfolding and progressive plan of
how He intends to redeem mankind.
In Summary from last week’s class
Point #1 in the study of the doctrine of God
In order for us to see God correctly then we must be able to
see His transcendence and His immanence in balance. And
we must be able to do so in a way in which the one side
doesn't diminish or jeopardize the other side.
Point #2 in the study of the doctrine of God
We must start with the transcendence of God which means
starting with the God that is in Himself independent of
anything else and from there understand that He has created
this world and chosen to relate to this world.
There are 6 incommunicable attributes for us to study in the
doctrine of God.
1. Self Existence
This has been sometimes referred to as asceity and it means
that God has existence within Himself or it is God's nature to
exist.
God is not caused to exist as is everything else in the universe.
Everything else owes its existence to something else and that is
true both from a direct and indirect fashion.
Point to anything in the universe and it's existence is a
derivative upon another but God's existence is intrinsic to
Himself. It is the very nature of God to exist.
When arguing for the existence of God this is the very thing
that drove Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) to his ontological
argument.
He argued that there must be something whose existence is
beyond the pale of dependence and is not contingent on
anything else.
We believe in the self existence of God. This is what we call
a ”necessary” existence. If something exists, we have to have
an adequate cause to explain it.
If there is a design then there must be a designer
We can also study the self existence of God from Genesis.
Isn’t that the the point of Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth.
So before the beginning there is God. Well before the
beginning of what? Well before the beginning of creation
there is God. The implication of that verse is that God has no
beginning and He exists eternally.
Eternity which is another attribute of God that we will look at
a bit later has to do with the mode of God's existence in
relation to time.
Self existence has to do with the fact of God's existence that is
independent, not contingent or necessary on anything else.
God has life in Himself and His existence is part of His very
nature.
It is indicated in the very name that God gave to Moses in
Exodus 3:14 when God said tell them that "I AM."
The term means I AM which is the being of God or His
existence.
And this has implications for the people of Israel in so far as
He is the God for them in their need and in their plight.
The term I AM means more than God's existence but it does
not mean less than that.
So the self existence of God means that God exists by virtue of His
very nature; he was never created and never came into being.
Nothing else in the universe has ever had this characteristic, or ever
will (necessary existence)
John 5:26 “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He
gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;
Rev. 4:11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and
honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they
existed and were created.”
Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you
had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting
you are God.”
Self existence is evident from the prayer of the Lord Jesus in
the garden of Gethsemane
John 17:5 - Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself,
with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
John 17:24 - Father, I desire that they also, whom You have
given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My
glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the
foundation of the world.
2. Self Sufficiency
Definition: God possesses within Himself every quality in
infinite measure. So any quality you can think of like beauty,
power or truth God has that quality in that it constitutes His
very nature.
For example the goodness of God is intrinsic to God because
no one gave this to God, no one makes God good, no one
grant God to be good, it is His own by nature. And this is not
true of us is it?
Why is it that we have any quality that we have? The short
answer is that it has been given to us.
1 Corinthians 4:7 For who regards you
as superior? What do you have that you
did not receive? And if you did receive it,
why do you boast as if you had not
received it?
Every moral quality that we have in whatever measure is a gift
of God to us. These we have because God has granted them to
us but these qualities are God's by His very nature and
existence.
These are God's infinitely which means;
All power is God's
All holiness is God's
All knowledge is God's
We will take an entire class to study this as we look closely at
following verses:
Psalm 50
Isaiah 40:12-17
Acts 17:24-25
The Bible teaches God is self-sufficient
How much does God possess?
Answer - everything
How much do we need to depend on God?
Answer - for everything
James 1:17 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.
So if every good and perfect gift comes from God, then
logically who do we know possesses it?
Answer - God
God brings into being that which was not or that which did
not exist.
He creates from nothing and brings something into existence
that was not there before. (The Latin phrase ex nihilo means
"out of nothing”)
These things that we are studying about the doctrine of God
are so important because they establish for us the very
supremacy of God.
Today in our culture we are hearing about a God who is
much more like us. It is as if God needs our help but I can
assure you that is not the God of the Bible.
We should marvel that the God of the Bible should deem to
care about us.
